Kolkata: Not too long ago, winning the toss and batting was the norm. Notwithstanding overhead conditions, soil texture or the roller type used, it is generally accepted that the pitch stays good for batting till the third day before it starts leaning towards the bowlers. Basically, risk batting till the third innings but definitely not in the fourth. In England though, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have ripped out that page from the pitch preparation manual with largely favourable results — 16 wins, 5 defeats and one draw — since they joined forces in June, 2022.
Seven of those wins came after England chose to bowl. In each of the five Tests England lost the toss and were asked to bowl, they won. So convinced was Stokes about this approach that in the Birmingham Test of 2022, he won the toss and promptly said “we’ll have a chase” instead of “we’ll have a bowl”. England chased down 378 on the fifth day.
This was a bold England, but also a very predictable England, courtesy the pitches that facilitated their freestyle batting. Winning the toss thus is one of the two ways of wrong-footing England. The other is what India did at Edgbaston — bury them under so many runs that chasing becomes inconceivable as does grinding out a draw because it’s simply not hardwired into their psyche.
Does it make for watchable cricket? Sure. Draws are virtually outlawed, especially since the points system of the World Test Championship was introduced. And since Test cricket’s survival hinges on competition, in this day and age that is comfortably equated with a T20-type batting slugfest. Taking the pitch out of the equation is a sure shot way of achieving that. Gaining immediate benefit thus were England’s top-order batters: Ollie Pope’s average at home rose from 27.25 before McCullum took charge to 46.65 now; or Ben Duckett, who, from not being considered to play at home before June, 2022, aggregates 49.72.
{{/usCountry}}Does it make for watchable cricket? Sure. Draws are virtually outlawed, especially since the points system of the World Test Championship was introduced. And since Test cricket’s survival hinges on competition, in this day and age that is comfortably equated with a T20-type batting slugfest. Taking the pitch out of the equation is a sure shot way of achieving that. Gaining immediate benefit thus were England’s top-order batters: Ollie Pope’s average at home rose from 27.25 before McCullum took charge to 46.65 now; or Ben Duckett, who, from not being considered to play at home before June, 2022, aggregates 49.72.
{{/usCountry}}Fast bowlers, inevitably, quickly found themselves at the receiving end. None other than James Anderson called out that disparity during the 2023 Ashes, writing in his column for The Telegraph that the Edgbaston pitch for the first Test was “like kryptonite” for him. “There was not much swing, no reverse swing, no seam movement, no bounce and no pace,” Anderson had written. “I’ve tried over the years to hone my skills so I can bowl in any conditions but everything I tried made no difference. I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle.”
No one is more successful than Anderson at Lord’s but he toiled to get only two wickets in the second Test there, after which he wrote: “When you see the best bowlers in the world slamming it into the middle of the pitch, it is not great viewing. I have spent 20 years pitching the ball up trying to swing it and move it off the deck and when you do not get anything doing that, it is frustrating.”
Two years down the line, nothing has changed. But to put things in context, data for the last two decades was also scrutinised. And it gave some interesting insights.
Overall, average swing in England has slid from 1.21 from 2006-15 to 0.96 since 2016; average seam has risen to 0.63 from 0.59 and the average fourth innings score has spiked to 201 from 193. Goes without saying, most of this change has happened since Ben Stokes went on record asking for ‘fast, flat pitches’ after becoming captain in April, 2022. Out went skilful bowling, and in came more audacious batting that dared to bring down any total. While it has waned at Lord’s and Old Trafford in the last 10 years, the average fourth innings score has taken off in Edgbaston (151 to 196) and Trent Bridge (151 to 189), and most shockingly at Leeds (171 to 321), once considered a haven for fast bowlers.
To produce entertaining cricket – connoisseurs of Test cricket may disagree – you need placid, lifeless pitches that don’t surprise batters, seems to be the philosophy. These numbers prove England are getting there. A side-effect of this approach is the Dukes ball going soft around the 30-over mark in this series since it’s losing shine faster than before due to a lack of grass cover on the pitch. Akash Deep was at least hitting the roughs at Edgbaston to get the new ball to seam, but once it got old, he too was rendered more or less benign.
This is giving a wide berth to batters throughout the duration of the Test, something even India skipper Shubman Gill doesn’t support, despite winning at Edgbaston. “If you know there is only 20 overs of any help and then you have to spend the rest of the day on the defensive, thinking how to stop runs, then the game loses its essence,” he said after the win.
Unless the Lord’s pitch goes against this narrative, prepare for more imbalance between bat and ball.