The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-13

The Sunday Times February 13, 2022 19

Cricket

I

t seems that not many people

want to work for the ECB these

days but someone who does is

Joe Root, who remarkably after

five years and 61 Tests as captain

has still not had enough,

confirming the notion that

anyone who captains England

must have a masochistic streak.

The words of support Root

received last week from Andrew

Strauss, the interim director of

cricket, while no doubt welcome, can

only be of short-term comfort. How

long Root survives — and whether he

gets a fourth shot at trying to win an

Ashes series in 2023 — depends on

results in West Indies and the views

of the next, full-time director of

cricket and next Test head coach.

This probably explains why the

changes to the squad were so radical

— eight players from the Ashes tour

sacked including the high-profilers

James Anderson and Stuart Broad —

and why Root has volunteered to

move up to No 3 in the Caribbean.

As has been the norm since 2003,

the England captain does not

formally vote in selection, but it is

unthinkable that such a drastic

revision would take place without

Root’s consent, and certainly not the

removal of two such influential and

voluble figures as Anderson and

Broad. The England captain does not

have a vote precisely to protect him

from direct accountability for such

contentious decisions, but that does

not mean he had nothing to do with

them. On the contrary, the whole

thing smacks of Root shedding his

J Alfred Prufrock proclivities and

daring to wear a T-shirt saying, “I’m

in charge.”

The Anderson-Broad call made

headlines but it was always likely that

one of them would miss out, for

reasons we will get to. The batting

issue is actually the more interesting

topic inasmuch as the run-scoring

crisis into which England’s batting

line-up has descended is one to

which Root’s captaincy has

unintentionally contributed.

Wind back to 2018 and Root’s

second year in charge. Searching for

a style of play that would suit his

team, he arrived at the idea of

replicating the freewheeling

approach of Eoin Morgan’s all-

conquering one-day side. Root’s Test

batsmen were to go hard, a strategy

aided by the likes of Jos Buttler and

Sam Curran scoring quickly at No 7

and No 8. “It’s not how long we bat

but how many runs we can score,”

Root said. England won seven Tests

out of eight playing that way in 2018.

Sadly but predictably, this risky

approach was tested to destruction

when Jason Roy was cast as opener in

the 2019 Ashes and comprehensively

failed. Root later admitted that Test

cricket was more nuanced. “Having

one way of playing doesn’t work. We

found that out the hard way. Being

more aggressive, you just can’t do it.”

After that came a shift towards

crease occupation. In came blockers

such as Dominic Sibley and Haseeb

Hameed, although in the end neither

actually proved much good at

occupying the crease. What they

certainly could not do was put

pressure back on the bowlers. Rory

Burns and Dawid Malan could be a

little more dynamic, but they

struggled with the crease occupation

thing too. After a disastrous Ashes

that approach has also been

consigned to the dustbin of bad ideas

and Malan, Hameed and Burns were

abroad, it was best to treat the two

spheres as quite separate.

To win abroad, England needed to

put more emphasis on high pace,

reverse swing and unorthodox spin,

assuming they could acquire it.

Strauss directly alluded to this

when asked about the dropping of

the Big Two, saying: “England teams

at home and away are different

things.” This explains, too, his

assurance that they will both be back

in the selection mix this summer.

Despite the beatings in India and

Australia, England have actually

improved their overseas results since

going down the twin-track selection

route. They won four Tests in the

winter of 2018-19 (three in Sri Lanka,

one in West Indies), three in 2019-20

(in South Africa) and three in 2020-21

(two in Sri Lanka, one in India).

Unsurprisingly, spin bowling

featured prominently in the six wins

in Asia, but it is revealing that in the

six wins Broad played in he averaged

only two wickets per game, which for

all his spiky interviews hardly

presents a cast-iron case for his place.

The harder omission to justify is

Anderson, who contributed five or

more wickets to the wins in Cape

Town, Galle and Chennai. But he is

39 and was unfit in Hobart. Root has

taken a big gamble on trying to get

back to winning ways without him,

but then he is in the greatest

predicament of his captaincy.

Root will bat

at No 3 in the

West Indies

WILLIAM WEST

Simon

Wilde

There is some logic

to Root’s big calls –

but they smack of

the last acts of a

desperate man

all dropped last week. Now, Root is to

move up to No 3 to inject purpose

into the top of the innings alongside

Zak Crawley.

This makes sense but does

constitute a punt, as Root has

generally refrained from batting at

three overseas, where conditions are

generally more physically demanding

for batsmen-captains than at home.

In fact, only once in 30 overseas Tests

has he batted first wicket down.

If this doesn’t work for Captain

Root, what then? There are only so

many decisions and revisions one

man can reverse.

For the rationale behind the

Anderson-Broad decision it is

necessary to go back to a piece of

research Strauss commissioned

during his time as official director of

cricket into England’s struggles to

win Tests overseas. It was conducted

by Nathan Leamon, the team analyst,

and the main conclusion was that,

because of the stark differences

between cricket in England and

BOWLERS INVOLVED IN ENGLAND

OVERSEAS TEST WINS 2018-22

Jack Leach

6

34

Moeen Ali

4

25

Dom Bess

5

25

James Anderson

6

22

Mark Wood

5

21

Ben Stokes

8

16

Stuart Broad

6

13

Adil Rashid

3

12

Sam Curran

7

9

Jofra Archer

1

3

Chris Woakes

1

3

Te s t s Wickets

‘If this doesn’t work

what then? There

are only so many

decisions one man

can reverse’

Rugby league is setting great store by

the Betfred Super League’s first live

terrestrial TV coverage in 27 seasons.

Channel 4 could not have been

happier with the first of its ten

matches after a dramatic opener at

Headingley.

Leeds Rhinos led for much of the

game despite the 16th-minute

dismissal of James Bentley before

Warrington Wolves finally got on top

in coming from 20-10 behind with a

try six minutes from time by young

Connor Wrench and converted by

Stefan Ratchford for the victory.

Josh Charnley launched the

Christopher Irvine

Wrench, left,

enjoys his try

Ratchford

gets the

measure

of 12-man

Leeds

comeback with his second try in the

65th minute, although Daryl Powell,

in his first game as Warrington coach

after eight years at Castleford, was

under no illusions. “I don’t think we

played well and Leeds probably

deserved it. Ultimately, we did some

good things at the back end,” he said.

Ratchford set up both tries and

marshalled the rearguard effort as

Warrington withstood huge pressure

as an engrossing contest came to the

boil. Leeds could have no

complaints

about the red

card that cost

them. Bentley, the

former St Helens

enforcer, struck Gareth

Widdop high with a clenched

fist and the referee had no

alternative than to send off

the player.

With Brad Dwyer in the

sin-bin for foul play and first-half

injuries to Richie Myler and David

Fusitu’a, it was remarkable that

Leeds responded as they did.

The last of their three tries, by Ash

Handley in grounding Kruise

Leeming’s pinpoint kick at full

stretch, came when they were still

down to 11 players early in the second

half. That Warrington were the ones

holding on at the end was testimony

to a terrific Leeds display

“Down to 11 players, 12,

they got us energy-wise and

lack of numbers, but we

dominated much of the

time,” Richard Agar, the

Rhinos coach, said.

Against the run of play,

Wrench’s clever offload

and Matty Ashton’s pace

set up Warrington’s first

try by Widdop.

However Leeds

responded with tries in

five minutes by their

props, Zane Tetevano and

Matt Prior, both set up by Dwyer.

Charnley pulled a try back before just

before the interval but Rhyse Martin’s

faultless goalkicking — three

conversions and a penalty — put

Leeds ten points clear entering the

last quarter of an hour.

Ratchford’s cut-out pass then freed

Charnley and the full back was spot

on again in dispatching Wrench to

level it. His conversion was

nervelessly struck too. A new

audience may be hooked already.

Star man: Stefan Ratchford (Warrington).

Scorers: Leeds Rhinos: Tries: Tetevano 20min,

Prior 24, Handley 43. Goals: Martin (4).

Warrington Wolves: Tries: Widdop 12, Charnley

38, 65, Wrench 74. Goals: Ratchford (3).

Leeds Rhinos: J Walker; D Fusitu’a, T Briscoe,

L Sutcliffe, A Handley; R Myler, A Sezer;

Z Tetevano, K Leeming, M Prior, J Bentley,

R Martin, C Smith. Interchange: J Donaldson,

M Gannon, B Dwyer, M Oledzki.

Warrington Wolves: S Ratchford; J Charnley,

P Mata’utia, C Wrench, M Ashton; G Widdop,

G Williams; R Mulhern, D Clark, M Cooper,

B Currie, O Holmes, M Prior. Interchange:

J Bullock, D Walker, J Philbin, J Clark.

Referee: C Kendall.

LEEDS RHINOS

20

WARRINGTON WOLVES 22

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