England must be more ruthless to challenge for No 1 ranking
A series win over the world’s No 1 Test side would be a feather in Joe Root’s cap. But, if it happens, I just hope it doesn’t persuade people that everything is rosy in the garden of English cricket.
England have a good record at home, where they haven’t lost since Sri Lanka nicked a two-match series back in 2014. Equally, India have always been bad travellers. So a win now wouldn’t change a great deal.
What matters for this team going forward is whether they can translate their home form into meaningful results away. And for that to happen they have to iron out a few kinks and plan for some difficult conversations with players they feel are best suited to English conditions.
I don’t mean that to sound negative. After all, England put in the perfect performance at Lord’s. Root is improving all the time as a captain and I like the way he’s getting a group of young lads together who clearly enjoying playing with each other. They need to maintain that mood at Trent Bridge.
But England are still fifth in the rankings and Root and Trevor Bayliss will want them to be better than that. If they manage to win the third Test, it would only be a start.
Let’s face it, there are a few areas they need to improve. The slip catching is an obvious one – if Dawid Malan had caught Virat Kohli on 21 at Edgbaston that game would probably have been a walkover too.
Then there are the batting collapses, which crop up too often for comfort. Look at that first Test, where they were going so smoothly on the first day before Kohli ran out Root and England crumbled.
I’d also like to see more ruthlessness and this is where Root himself can set the tone. I admire the consistency with which he reaches 50: in his last 23 Tests, he’s made a half-century in 19 of them. But he’s got to start converting them, not just into hundreds, but into 150s.
He’ll also need to have a plan in mind for the winter. The next few days are all about going 3-0 up against India. But in the meantime the people around him – Bayliss, Ed Smith, Andy Flower – have got to be thinking about a Plan B for flatter pitches where the ball stops swinging.
In one way it would be good for England’s bowlers to be tested before the series is out so that they can keep improving.
They also need to be planning for a second spinner to help Adil Rashid, and to be working out who the best young fast bowlers are to step in when Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad finally call it a day.
He didn’t get that in Australia last winter and England can’t afford to make the same mistake again.
If that means a difficult conversation with someone like Chris Woakes, who averages 22 with the ball in home Tests and 61 away, then so be it.
Root said leaving Sam Curran out of this match was the hardest decision he has had to make as captain.
But if he wants to turn England into a Test team capable of challenging for the No 1 ranking, he will have to steel himself for similar chats down the line.
If England win this game they should enjoy their celebrations. But the true test is still to come.
Courtesy Daily Mail