Cocky England have disrespected Test cricket and Sri Lanka
England had a strong Test summer of regeneration, but they finished with a very disappointing defeat at the Oval.
I felt that they disrespected Test cricket, and disrespected Sri Lanka in the third Test by being overly aggressive with the bat and in their field placings. England have made a habit of becoming a bit complacent after a good period – I think of the start of the Ashes, or earlier this year in Rajkot – and I hope it serves as a wake-up call for the tougher Tests that lie in wait in 2025. There is no way they will get away with playing like this against India or Australia.
I would really encourage England never to lose the love of winning. Sitting in the dressing room after a Test win – whether it is in the Ashes away or against an average West Indies side or Sri Lanka, who are not as strong as they once were, in your own backyard – is a very special feeling. You should be desperate for it every week as a Test cricketer.
The intensity and concentration in the big moments were missing this week. It was all a bit flimsy – cocky even. They took the mickey out of the game. The answer in Test cricket’s hottest moments cannot always be attack, attack, attack.
In the first innings, they turned 3-261 into 325 all out, then gifted Sri Lanka runs on the second day through attacking fields and by bowling spin in bad light. So a lead of 62 on first innings was not that comfortable. I love that they have an attack-first mentality, but then to be bowled out in 34 overs on that pitch against that attack was nothing short of pathetic.
This week really hit home to me how important Joe Root is to this batting line-up. His batting is the key. All these flamboyant players around him get flamboyant fifties. But without the glue at No.4 getting the huge number of runs he does, they are knackered. He cannot do it every week, and he did not do it this week. Jasprit Bumrah enjoys bowling at Root, and could severely limit his output next summer. The same goes for Pat Cummins in Australia, where Root has never scored a hundred. England have to find ways of succeeding when Root does not make big runs. On the basis of this game, they do not.
It is a shame because the team overall made good progress this summer, with the emergence of Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson, who look like players who will be around for a long time, and a general refresh with Shoaib Bashir, Olly Stone, Josh Hull and the like. There has been a new version of Bazball, a bit more thoughtful and patient, aggressive at the right times. That is what I witnessed when Root saw them to victory at Old Trafford, and Smith put them in charge against West Indies at Edgbaston.
This was too far, though. There is so much talent around Root in the batting line-up, even with Zak Crawley and Ben Stokes injured. But they cannot rely on one player.
In Smith and Harry Brook, they have two young players who can become as reliable as Root. The rest are just dangerous players, and as a unit the batting line-up seems to believe that the more the ball swings, the harder they should go. That normally works for someone like Ben Duckett, but Brook needs to wise up.
He could be a genius, but he has pretty much published an invitation to bowling attacks around the world to bowl to him in the channel with a packed off-side field, and he will chase it. Teams will be clocking this, both the analysts and the great bowlers like Bumrah and Cummins. Brook will give himself nowhere to go, because in the Ashes last year he took on every short ball, and now if you hide it outside off stump he will take that on, too. Batting like that exposes Root even more.
England’s batters, including Harry Brook, did not have any century partnerships against Sri Lanka. The visitors had three over the series.They need to generate more partnerships. Against Sri Lanka they did not have a single partnership of 100 across the series (Sri Lanka had three). That leaves you totally reliant on individual brilliance.
I felt England’s bowling was fine this week, but I thought the over-aggressive fields they went for did the bowlers a disservice and put them on the back foot immediately. They went out with an idea to be super-aggressive, but this was not the match or pitch for that. This was a top-of-off pitch, two or three slips and a gully, with extra cover in. They had six slips, short leg, leg slip. It was almost as if they had 650 on the board, but they had half of that.
To make matters worse, the Oval has a rapid outfield and the new ball has not been doing as much lately. You are almost sitting in, waiting for the lacquer to come off, and then it swings round corners after 15 or 20 overs. The fields meant that Sri Lanka got off to a flying start, which bowlers hate. It means they lose confidence and start chasing. It just did not look right and was too easy for Sri Lanka.
I have looked at England this week and thought, “You would never do that against India or Australia.” So why do it against Sri Lanka, who competed hard in the first two Tests and have shown they are a good team?
