James Anderson says he is back playing
“with a smile” after admitting that he
got emotional and frustrated during the
first Test.
England’s leading wicket-taker had a
disappointing game at Old Trafford
despite England’s thrilling five-wicket
victory but has taken three wickets in
Pakistan’s first innings at the Ageas
Bowl in Southampton. “I have felt a lot
better this week both mentally and with
the ball,” Anderson said at the end of
another rain-affected day which ended
with Pakistan on 223 for nine.
“I had some good chats with some
players this week and did some really
good work on my technique as well so I
came in with a bit more confidence.
“Obviously, taking wickets helps and
Anderson bowling with a smile again
makes me remember why we play this
game. It is enjoyable when you get it
right so I have just tried to have more of
a smile on my face and enjoy being out
there with the lads.”
Only 40.2 overs were possible on the
second day of the second Test because
of rain in the morning and bad light in
the afternoon.
Neither Anderson, 38, nor his long-
time new-ball partner Stuart Broad are
in favour of the suggestion that the ball
should be changed to a pink one, as
used in day-night Test matches, when
the gloom sets in.
“I don’t think we can change the
colour of the ball when it gets a bit
dark,” Anderson said. Broad agreed,
telling the BBC: “I don’t agree with that
[bringing in a pink ball] at all. We have
seen with the history of the pink ball
under floodlights, it’s been very trickyfor batsmen so I think it would be an
unfair balance to the game.
“If you were 300 for three and it got
a bit dark and the pink ball was brought
in you could lose five for ten if it swings
around like it can do. I think that is
complicating the situation too much.”
Broad, who has taken 25 wickets this
summer, believes the Ageas Bowl pitch
will still produce a result despite the
time lost and an ominous weather
forecast for the next three days.
“It has been frustrating, it feels like
we have been in the field a long time but
we are in a decent position,” Broad said.
“We know that here the first-innings
score can be outscored by the team bat-
ting next. We are a bit disappointed not
to have bowled Pakistan out already.
We have beaten the bat more than
catch[ing] the edge but first-innings
runs will be vital.”Elizabeth Ammon
It was the summer of 1999 and the
World Cup had just finished in this
country, meaning that the great South
African Jacques Kallis could enjoy a
short period in county cricket with us
at Glamorgan.
We were playing a County
Championship match against Surrey
at the Oval. We got smashed by an
innings and a few, with the ball
moving around for the seamers and
turning for the spinners on a pitch
fast enough for Simon Jones to
shatter Jonathan Batty’s cheekbone
and for Kallis to bowl like the wind.
With the bat Kallis got nought and
eight, from memory receiving two
very good balls, as did a few others, as
Martin Bicknell, the late Ben
Hollioake and Saqlain Mushtaq all
bowled superbly.
Most of us dusted ourselves down,
shrugged our shoulders and moved
on. Not Kallis. He was already a
player operating on a different level.
He was fuming. For days.
I had to ask our coach, Duncan
Fletcher, what was up. He explained
that his protégé Kallis — who had the
great fortune of being in the same
class at school as Fletcher’s son and
was being thrown balls daily by
Fletcher from the age of 12 — was
seething because he had seen it as an
opportunity to show how good he was
and felt his technique should have
been sharper and more precise.
There were no excuses, bringing to
mind the observation once made by
the former Australia batsman David
Boon, who said that he received only
one ball in his whole career — a leg
cutter from Curtly Ambrose — that
was unplayable. All the others he
could have played better, he said.
In the challenging circumstances,
Kallis felt he should have at least
scored a half-century (nobody made
more than 24 in either of our
innings). It was a swift insight into the
mind of a supreme batting technician,
a perfectionist who would go on to
average 55.37 in Test cricket.
Which brings us to Pakistan’s Babar
Azam and his innings in devilishly
testing conditions. Babar, 25, scored
47 and played superbly well at times,
especially when clipping magisterially
off his legs, but you do wonder
exactly what he made of it.
He was dismissed by a beauty of a
ball from Stuart Broad, which he
edged behind, but could he have
played it a little better? Are some
small kinks in his batting technique
being exposed in this series?
Babar scored 69 in the first innings
at Emirates Old Trafford but has now
been out three times to balls moving
away from him. Often when playing aerratic England’s frustration
English conditions are
proving to be ultimate
test for classy Babar
defensive shot, he ends up with his
back (right) leg some distance outside
the position of his head and hands,
inevitably meaning that his back
shoulder comes into view too. He
generally plays the ball late but it
becomes increasingly difficult to do
so when you are in this position.
Another small adjustment he may
consider is playing more off the back
foot when the ball is shorter. He does
move back but there is still a lot of
weight on his front foot, which means
that he finds it hard to adjust for extra
movement or bounce.
These may seem like minor
quibbles when Babar is clearly in the
top echelon of batsmen at the
moment, already inked in by some as
a member of Test cricket’s Fab Five
alongside Steve Smith, Virat Kohli,
Kane Williamson and Joe Root, as
well as being a white-ball expert.
There he is quite magnificent,
averaging more than 50 in both ODIs
and T20Is. He is ranked third in the
world in the former and top of the
tree in the latter.
After a slowish start to his Test
career — taking 32 innings to make
his first century — he scored four
hundreds and a 97 in seven Test
innings before arriving in England.
Before this innings he possessed the
highest Test average for all those
batsmen who have played at least 20innings since the start of 2018. It was
65 then but by scoring “only” 47 it has
dropped down to 62.33, meaning he is
just below Australia’s Marnus
Labuschagne. He still has the next
three on the list — Smith, Kohli and
Williamson — covered.
Babar batted with exceptional
patience yesterday, leaving judiciously
in the hour of play before lunch when
Pakistan did not lose a wicket.
Some of his leg-side strokes were
an utter joy to watch. Many of them
were taken off the stumps with
exquisite balance and timing. A
particular favourite was a straight-bat
punch between mid-wicket and mid-
on for three from a perfectly
respectable Chris Woakes delivery.
We have to remember that Babar
had played only one Test in this
country before this series, two years
ago at Lord’s, when he was on 68
when Ben Stokes broke his wrist. And
it is not as if Babar is enduring the
sort of horror time Kohli suffered
here in 2014 (average 13.50) before
returning triumphantly in 2018.
It is just that he may be learning
some valuable lessons that could help
him to become a truly great Test
batsman — his average is still “only”
44.79 in this format and he is ranked
sixth in the world — because batting
in England undoubtedly is the
ultimate test in that respect.Despite being in the top
echelon of batsmen,
there remain valuable
lessons for 25-year-old to
learn, says Steve James
Shaheen is left
grounded as
Woakes and
Broad celebrate
Sibley’s direct hitBabar’s average in England — but with
a highest score of 6963
BRADLEY ORMESHER/NMC/POOLSport
the times | Saturday August 15 2020 2GS 3