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Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum are no strangers to experiements. They are the ones who “prefer” chasing big totals on Day 4 and Day 5 of a Test match. Why? Because it’s challenging. They are the ones, who encourage openers to smack the first ball of a Test match out of the park if it’s in their zone. They are the ones who appear the likeliest to end India’s 16-series-long winning run at home. But even by the new-age and bold standards that McCullum and Stokes have set in taking England’s Test side to new heights, opening the bowling with Joe Root seems a bit too much.
But that might be a reality in the first Test in Hyderabad on Thursday if Stokes gets the “gut feeling”. “It would be a complete and utter ‘gut’ thing, as most of my decisions like that are,” said Stokes ahead of the series opener against India. “You might even see Rooty taking the new ball, depending on what I feel. If (left-hander) Yashasvi Jaiswal opens the batting, you might see Rooty opening the bowling because it’s spinning away from the bat.”
Jaiswal will most certainly open the batting for India along with captain Rohit. Match-ups in T20Is and even to a certain extent, in ODIs are the in-thing but in Test matches? How many captains would introduce a non-regular off-spinner with the new ball because the opposition side has a left-handed opener?
There may be a bit more than that to Stokes’ idea. Pitches in India have offered assistance to spinners as early as the first session of the Test match in the last few years. Root has picked up eight wickets at an average of 25 in India. Geez! If the batter Root wasn’t enough.
The former England captain is a fairly accurate off-spinner.His 5/33 in Ahmedabad the last time England tour India is the biggest example of that. Finger spinners always tend to get more out of the Indian pitches. That is one of the biggest reasons why India always prefer someone like Axar Patel over Kuldeep Yadav.
No James Anderson in first Test?
If Stokes was indeed serious about opening the bowling with Root and if does walk the talk on the morning of the Hyderabad Test, then it would also mean that England are seriously considering the idea of fielding three specialist spinners in their XI.
And if that happens, the only seamer is likely to be Mark Wood and not James Anderson. Yeah, maybe even a bigger shock than Root opening the bowling.
Anderson is the most experienced member of the England side. He is on his seventh tour to India and is also the only active cricketer who knows what it is like to win a Test series in India – he played a crucial role in England’s 2-1 series win back in 2012.
But Stokes is too tempted about Wood as a “package”. “If we do choose to go with just the one seamer, you can’t deny what Woody possesses as a package,” Stokes said. “His express pace and he can get the ball reverse swinging as well … the skill that he has is obviously something that you want in your team. We’ve got an out-and-out pace with Gus and Woody, then we’ve got the unbelievable skillset that Jimmy and Robbo possess. We’ve got all bases covered with whatever team we decide to go with.”
England mulling three spinners option
England also have the option of picking three spinners with Jack Leech being the only one with prior experience of playing a Test in India. Rehan Ahmed has played only one Test so far in his career and then there is Tom Hartley, who Stokes thinks can cause a few problems to India with his height and trajectory.
“India is one of those places where you’ve got to think about selection a lot more than anywhere else in the world because of what you can get from the wicket.”
“I’ve done plenty of tours here and think I would have some idea around what a bowler can look like here who will be successful,” Stokes added. “Tom is someone who’s obviously very tall, he bowls at a very difficult pace to be able to handle out here and he’s someone who gets a lot of natural variation.”
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