Five Pakistani talking points
Five Pakistani talking points about Pope, Stokes, and bowlers
England lost a three-match series they led 1-0 for the first time after being beaten in Pakistan.
Although it also means their 2024 balance sheet is not in credit.
It is only the second series they have lost under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. 14 games played, 7 wins, and 7 losses.
The tour of New Zealand is quickly approaching.
And there is a lot to consider prior to the first Test match in Christchurch on November 28.
To what extent is England good?
When England performs well, it is thrilling. They are immensely annoying when they are bad.
The Bazball movement peaked in 2022 with a 3-0 victory on the final tour of Pakistan.
England’s record under Stokes and McCullum was 11 games played, 10 wins.
And 1 loss in the subsequent Test match against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui.
England has played 21, won 10, and lost 10 since then.
If the weather in Manchester during the Ashes had not resulted in the lone tie.
They very likely would have a winning record. They now sit sixth out of nine teams in the World Test Championship standings.
Mitigation is present.
Although New Zealand has demonstrated that victory here is far from impossible.
Stokes and McCullum have rejuvenated an elderly group, and England has played more away games this season than at home.
It is truly great how positive, united, and determined England is to enjoy the honor of playing international sport.
However—and this is a big “but”—winning and losing are important.
Perhaps it is challenging to combine consistent results with casual entertainment.
But in the end, England will be evaluated based on its performance.
Every Test, beginning with New Zealand, is significant. The legacy of this team will thereafter be shaped by India at home and Australia the following winter. The day of judgment has arrived.
Both the captain and vice-captain of England currently lack a reliable number three and a full-strength Stokes.
Stokes should be given some leeway.
The bigger issue is Ollie Pope. Even though he is a match-winner when he enters, he does not enter enough to win any matches. The vice skipper made 154 when he reached 30 for the first time in his last 12 knocks.
He has the support of England, who will be eager for him to score runs in New Zealand. Pope’s ability to consistently produce against the top assaults is still questioned, even if he does have some short-term success.
Pope is helped by the lack of obvious alternatives to fill the number-three slot. Joe Root is the best option, yet has never wanted to bat there. Harry Brook and Jamie Smith have sound techniques and are succeeding in their slots at five and seven. Michael Vaughan, writing in The Telegraph,, external says moving Stokes to three would solve two issues at once.
The variable in all of this is Jordan Cox. If he does well covering for father-to-be Smith in New Zealand, England might find him hard to ignore. It is on Pope to ensure he is not the man squeezed out.
Spin war
This is the end of a four-year Asian adventure for England. After 17 Tests here since the beginning of 2021, they are not back until 2027.
While the batters and pace bowlers breathe a sigh of relief, the spinners must wonder where it leaves them.
Barring an injury to Shoaib Bashir, there has to be a question over whether 33-year-old Jack Leach will ever play for England again.
As England’s designated number one, Stokes has admitted 21-year-old Bashir is learning on the job.
He struggled in the four Tests Pope captained, but his record under Stokes’ nurturing hand is pretty good – an average of 32 with a strike-rate of 55. As a very loose comparison, Nathan Lyon averages just over 30 with a strike-rate of nearly 62.
Bashir’s biggest challenge will come in Australia, where men in green helmets will try to whack him out of the southern hemisphere. He seems to have the temperament not to be cowed, the question will be whether he has the skill, guile and craft to do the job that will be required.
England have another dilemma over how to get the best out of the precocious Rehan Ahmed. Since making his debut here as an 18-year-old, the leg-spinner has played five Tests, all in Asia. He makes things happen. Ahmed’s strike-rate of 47.1 is the best of any England spinner with at least 20 wickets since 1928.
To consign Ahmed only to tours of Asia as a second or third spinner feels like a waste. If he takes his Test batting a little more seriously – he bats as high as five for Leicestershire – the 20-year-old can make himself more valuable.
As a start, England should at least give consideration to promoting Ahmed to Bashir’s understudy, especially if they need an X-factor in Australia.
Pace pack
The impressive emergence of Brydon Carse is the latest stage in the rebuilding of an England pace attack in a previously unthinkable world without James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Not everything is about the Ashes but, for this area of the team, that plane journey to Perth in November next year is paramount. Stokes is not the first England captain to put together a long-term plan to have a pace battery down under. He will know plenty before him have arrived for a gun battle armed only with pea shooters.
A year out, there is a long list of names that could find themselves in Australia: Carse, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Josh Hull, Dillon Pennington and John Turner.
What about Jofra Archer, whose latest return from injury is being painstakingly managed? It would be joyous to see Archer back in England whites and he has said that is his long-term goal.
How England get him to that point is ticklish. There are tighter restrictions around entering the Indian Premier League auction this year, to mitigate against players dipping in and out of lucrative deals.
For Archer to get back to the Test team, he will surely have to play for Sussex at some point. The most obvious time to do so would be in the early part of the 2025 summer, when the County Championship clashes with the IPL.
Then there is the wildcard, Dan Worrall. The 33-year-old, born in Melbourne and with three Australia ODI caps, qualifies to play for England in the spring thanks to a British passport and three seasons with Surrey. Alec Stewart has likened him to Anderson.
When Kent fast bowler Martin McCague, raised in Western Australia, played for England in the early 1990s the Aussie media called him “the rat that joined the sinking ship”. Just imagine the hullabaloo if Worrall is part of the England squad this time next year.
Test cricket is far from dying
The health, or lack thereof, of Test cricket is debated so much it is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
England’s tour of Pakistan has been rich for its record-breaking and changing conditions, New Zealand have pulled off something special in India, while South Africa are doing well in Bangladesh.
The idea of windows for Test cricket to thrive away from franchise leagues is happening organically. Now they need formalising.
The World Test Championship is coming to the boil. India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka all have something to play for, and the upcoming Australia-India series has more spice because of it. What a shame England are not in the race.
Rumours of Test cricket’s demise are greatly exaggerated. It just needs some TLC.
