The New Zealand Test series is a daunting task for Alastair Cook’s side – there are questions over almost all his senior players
The last six months have been traumatic for England. Our cricket has been poor and the administration of our game a shambles.
The public are disappointed and disenchanted with what has gone on. Before Christmas our one-day team could hardly win a match in Sri Lanka, Alastair Cook was sacked (eventually) as our one-day captain, the team were pathetic in the World Cup playing old-fashioned cricket and our selectors unadventurous.
We should have beaten West Indies 3-0 and I was dumbfounded at the judgement by Cook to play Jonathan Trott in all three Test matches when he was still fragile. It was a monumental mistake.
Going into the Tests in the Caribbean with four seamers on sub-continental style slow, dry, turning pitches was unbelievably stupid. I am not saying this with the luxury of hindsight either – I said so at the time.
If Cook had read the pitches better, and not been so inflexible, England would have picked another spinner to winkle batsmen out and won all three Test matches.
We then had the Peter Moores sacking becoming public before the guy himself even knew about it followed by a pig’s ear being made of the latest Kevin Pietersen saga.
Our cricket is at a low point and the people who run it have embarrassed and ridiculed us all over the world. Everyone, and I mean players and administrators, need to put their hands up and admit they could and should have done a lot better and stop blaming other people. Then we can move forward and try to win some Test matches.
There is a feeling among many people that it is hard to get into the England team but once in, even harder to get out.
Nobody wants to go back to the bad times of chopping and changing every Test match but players can get too comfortable with central contracts and the captain picking his favourites. Always remember, it is a results-orientated profession for individuals, captains and teams.
Cook has to galvanise his players to bring an urgency and positivity to our cricket. And let’s have some improvement from certain individuals.
Everybody loves Ian Bell’s batting because it is so easy on the eye and beautiful to watch. He always does enough to stay in the team and yet somehow we are often left wanting more.
Is he complacent? Has the hunger gone? Someone has to get him to give England more. There are four tough series coming up against New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan in the UAE, where he was awful against Saeed Ajmal in 2012, and then England face the top seam attack of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander in South Africa. England need Bell at his best.
I can’t make up my mind whether Moeen Ali is the real deal or not. Coming in straight after Graeme Swann retired meant he would always be judged against a guy with an exceptional, match-winning record. That brings extra pressure and comparisons which are hard to match. He spins the ball well, appears to have an unflappable temperament and the knack of picking up wickets. Add in his batting and England have a nice young cricketer.
But there is the lingering doubt over whether he can bowl teams out like Swann, Derek Underwood and Fred Titmus did before him. Picking up an odd wicket or two and making a few runs is ok. But when you are expected to be the match-winner and bowl a team out it is a different kind of pressure and skill.
Ben Stokes is a raw diamond that still needs to be polished. Being a street-fighter is good if it gives his cricket a competitive edge but if he takes it literally and explodes against the opposition like he did at Marlon Samuels in Grenada then that loss of cool and aggression will boil over and be used against him by the opposition.
When Stokes was out hitting a long hop to deep midwicket in Grenada, Samuels ridiculed and embarrassed him by saluting him off the field. He was made to look foolish. Keep the competitive spirit but zip up the mouth.
Stokes has a turn of speed with skiddy pace to trouble most batsmen but it needs honing. His batting needs some serious work because he can’t live forever on that one century in Perth.
I think he needs to work on using more right elbow and right shoulder to play straighter and not across the line of the ball.
Before the West Indies Stuart Broad’s bowling was down on pace with no thrust and did not threaten any batsmen, but the more he bowled, we saw glimpses of his best.
He will get better. No doubt about that. But my biggest concern is his batting. It is embarrassing to watch him backing away because there is fear in his head and England are losing out on some late order runs from a bowler with huge batting talent. If he needs help mentally then get him to see someone because if this goes on much longer he will become a laughing stock.
Chris Jordan taking brilliant catches at slip is fantastic but that alone is not enough to keep him in the team. England need a wicket-taking third seamer, not a stock bowler who can bowl to a semi-defensive field, keeping the runs down and just waiting for Jimmy Anderson to return.
There is too much dependency on Anderson and that is not a recipe for success as we found out in the West Indies. Other bowlers have to take some wickets. Anderson is the star of the show and without him our bowling looks ordinary. He is mainly a red ball, English conditions bowler and he is up there in the pantheon of great English fast medium bowlers alongside Alec Bedser, Maurice Tate and George Lohmann.
