the times | Tuesday March 15 2022 61
Sport
Yesterday was a relatively calm day,
though, with those England players
who had a heavy workload in the first
Test in Antigua taking advantage of
optional training to have a day off. Ollie
Robinson was one who did train and
was said to be progressing well, while
Mark Wood was not. Jofra Archer
made an appearance and his heavily-
strapped right elbow acted as a remind-
er to be cautious where elbow injuries
are concerned.better performances in the field, it is
hard to see how they can defend any
score they post.
On the one hand, it is a good sign
for women’s cricket that there has
been a levelling-up of the teams since
the 2017 World Cup, thanks in part
to the franchise T20 tournaments,
and it is making for a gripping competi-
tion.
On the other hand, England are the
second-best resourced team in the
world behind Australia, having
Archer cranking up return
Jofra Archer’s right arm may have
been heavily strapped but the very
sight of him bowling in the nets
again is a huge boost for England.
The fast bowler, 26, who has not
played for his country in almost a
year due to recurring elbow issues,
had surgery for a second time in
December.
There is no confirmed timeline for
his return but he was hitting good
speeds in the nets in Barbados, his
base during his rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, the all-rounder Ben
Stokes, who has also had his fair
share of injury issues in the past
year, has said he is happy with his
heavy workload. Stokes bowled 41
overs in the drawn first Test, after a
side strain in the Ashes. “I felt fine. I
wanted to do what I could to help
the team,” the 30-year-old said.How they stand
P W L T Pts NRR
Australia 33006+1.63
South Africa 33006+0.28
India 3 2 1 0 4 +1.33
New Zealand 42204-0.26
West Indies 32104-0.97
Bangladesh 31202-0.48
England 3030 0-0.16
Pakistan 4 0 4 0 0 -1.00
England’s remaining fixtures:
Tomorrow, 1am: Mount Maunganui v
India. Saturday, 10pm: Auckland v New
Zealand. Thursday, March 24, 1am:
Christchurch v Pakistan. Saturday, March
26, 10pm: Wellington v Bangladesh.GARETH COPLEY/GETTY IMAGESreceived an increase in investment, and
so these have been very concerning
performances.
There have been central England
contracts since 2015 and since last year
there have been more than 40 full-time
professionals in the domestic game
too. There will inevitably be a post-
World Cup review, which may result in
some players losing their central
contracts.
An early exit would be England’s
worst performance in a World Cup
since 2000, the only time in the history
of the tournament that they have failed
to reach at least the semi-finals.
Lisa Keightley, England’s head coach,
is a quiet and thoughtful woman but
her frustrations were clear when she
spoke after the match. “We came into
this World Cup to play better than we
have, and it’s been frustrating for myself
and the coaching staff, and frustrating
for the players,” she said.
“For some reason, we haven’t clicked
and we’re finding it really hard to do so.
As the coach, I take a huge amount of
responsibility for the losses. It’s up
to me to drive the team and get the
wins on the board. The players are
pretty gutted.”recovers from the injury that has kept him out of international cricket for a year
even to the most seasoned of
campaigners. Lees has had his first
experience of it now, his
acclimatisation, so hopefully the
28-year-old can find his way through
that new ball this week by trusting his
game and begin to build a score. It is
time to perform, with the added
safety of the knowledge that he will
be given at least this series to do so, as
there is no recognised reserve opener
on the trip.
At the other end of the confidence
spectrum now sits his opening
partner, Zak Crawley, after his second
Test century. Yes, the pitch in Antigua
was flat and the bowling not overly
threatening once the new ball had lost
its swing, but it is an essential part of
successful batting that one’s boots are
filled when the conditions suit.
Batting records are rarely set on
green mambas, but the confidence of
a big score on a belter can make those
tough situations a whole lot easier.
Doomed is the batter searching for a
career-defining score on a dodgy
track. Crawley’s first innings, which
ended on eight when he was
brilliantly caught behind by Joshua
Da Silva aiming a crooked drive at a
Jayden Seales ball, was a reminder of
his technical challenges early on, but
his second innings was studded with
restraint, amid constant counsel from
his captain, Joe Root.
“He’s always a calm head telling me
to take it one ball at a time and make
good decisions,” Crawley said after
making 121. Indeed, batting is all
about decision-making. Much of it is
subconscious and instinctive from
hours of repetition, but a lot of it is
conscious too.
Crawley’s biggest technical fault has
always been the position of his head
on ball release, with it being just
behind his front knee rather than
over it, and this can also affect his
decision-making, because a head
position when playing forward that is
upright and neutral (basically
between one’s feet) makes it difficult
to judge length.
The 24-year-old loves to drive
good-length balls on the up, but that
is hazardous for an opener, as he has
discovered. Length is key at the start
of the innings and only those balls
right under one’s eyes should be
driven. That first-innings ball was of a
good length yet again but, under the
supervision of Root, who himself
went on to a century, Crawley made
much better decisions in his second
innings and so reaped the rewards.
It is vital he now kicks on. For Lees,
it is all about just starting.‘T
ry not to be too
disheartened: in the time
that I have played, of all
the batsmen making their
debuts only Thorpie
[Graham Thorpe] made a success first
time around. Everybody else took a
game or two to find their feet.”
The letter, of which this was a part,
was handwritten, a most thoughtful
and empathetic missive sent after my
Test debut in 1998 by an England
team-mate, who, as it happens, has
gone on to become a rather good
writer in this parish.
The match had not gone well for
me, with scores of ten and nought
against South Africa at Lord’s, which
only just about kept me out of the
category of two single-figure scores
from an opener on debut —
something that became topical
in Antigua, when Alex Lees made
only four and six in the recently
concluded Test.
It transpired that the most recent
England opener before him to make
two single-figure scores on debut was
my old Glamorgan opening partner,
Hugh Morris, also against West
Indies, in 1991. In fairness the bowler
on both occasions was the quite
fearsome Patrick Patterson, and
Morris was a fine player, making 53
first-class centuries.
In this digital age Lees will
doubtless not have been receiving
many handwritten letters in recent
days (little time between Tests either,
and I was actually dropped after
debut), but he will certainly have
needed plenty of support and
encouragement from those around
him in the England camp.
The days between his second
innings on Friday and the start of the
second Test tomorrow will not have
been easy, often fretful. Failure, worry
and introspection can all become the
best of friends rather too easily in
such circumstances, especially when,
as it was for Lees, both dismissals
were leg-before to the same bowler,
Kemar Roach.
Assumptions can be swift and
simplistic in these scenarios. Lees is a
leg-before candidate, so the whispers
will go. That dastardly chimp on his
shoulder will probably have heard the
rumours too, and will mention as
much at the most inopportune of
moments, like the dead of night.
Such are the mental battles of a
professional batter. Much resilience
and resolve is required, and Lees will
need to draw on his deepest reserves,
knowing Roach will be waiting for
him again in Barbados.
The truth, of course, is that Roach
is an exceptional fast bowler,
especially against left-handers such
as Lees, with his ability to swing the
ball lavishly away from the batsman
from around the wicket. Lees’s first-
innings dismissal was a wonderfully
smart piece of bowling, as Roach
teased the batsman with a succession
of balls going away from him, which
he left, before sliding a straighter one
in that thudded into Lees’s front pad
on the angle.
What was immediately obvious
about the tall left-hander on his firstappearance at the highest level was
that he does not possess a trigger
movement, which is unusual these
days. In other words, he stands stock-
still before the ball is bowled.
It is a much more uncomplicated
and traditional method than many of
his funky predecessors at the top of
England’s order have adopted, but it
does have its disadvantages when the
ball is swinging at pace. Play the
second line, not the first, is a much-
heard refrain to young batters, but
that is much more easily done if a
small movement — a trigger — is
made before the ball is bowled. The
final movement can then be
relatively small.
Between Tests is no time for
technical tinkering, but it was
noticeable that in his second innings
Lees shifted his guard more to the leg
side, to try to keep his legs out of the
way but, as so often with these things,
that only created another problem:
the balls outside off stump dragged
his head further and further across
the crease so that when Roach did
slip another straight one in, his head
was toppling towards gully.
That he reviewed straight away
when it looked absolutely plumb was
evidence of how disorientated he had
become, but Test cricket can do that,Lees must trust his game
and shrug off testing start
Lees fell twice in single figures in the first Test, trapped lbw by Roach both timesSteve James
RANDY BROOKS/AFP/GETTYFeast or famine
Best and worst Test debuts for
England openers
Most runs
Paul Gibb (1938)Andrew Strauss (2004)Alastair Cook (2006)Peter Richardson (1956)Pelham Warner (1899)Fewest runs
Jack Russell (1920)Frederick Fane (1906)Hugh Morris (1991)Wilf Slack (1986)Len Hutton (1937)Must have batted twice19919516415415354421