Match report - where did England go wrong?

Wasn't it great to see test cricket back on TV again? I heard Michael Atherton say that despite no crowds at the ground, it was the most watched test of all time.

So what went wrong for England? There are lots of things that contribute to the loss of a test match, but I am going to focus on just one crucial factor - the man in charge of the team. There’s a reason that players in Flickit Cricket take on the role of team captains. The decisions a captain makes have a big influence on the outcome of a match. Here are my thoughts on Ben Stokes as captain and why I think his decision making contributed greatly to England losing this test.

Ben Stokes's Captaincy

I am a big Ben Stokes fan, he is currently England's best test cricketer and his name should be first down in any selection meeting. However, I believe Jason Holder out-captained him. Stokes made some crucial captaincy errors which cost England the test match.

No Gully Fielder

Gully is usually a standard fielding position to quick bowling for a very good reason - many batsmen are caught at Gully. I would love to know why Stokes refused to have a fielder in Gully for the whole test match. There were many catching chances in that area, particularly when Archer was bowling, but there was no fielder there to catch them. In contrast, Holder had two gullies when Stokes himself was batting - in fact, he had a fielder in Gully for all his fast bowlers. Sure enough, Holder found the leading edge and Stokes was out caught by a fielder positioned there. Stokes’s refusal to have a Gully cost England many catching chances and as a result the West Indies made a far bigger total than they should have.

Non selection of Stuart Broad

In Flickit Cricket, captains get to pick their teams. In real life, captains need to work with selectors, but I believe that if Stokes had really wanted Broad in his team he would have had him. I understand that hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if Archer and Wood had bowled well, the non selection of Broad would not be an issue. The fact is they didn’t bowl well, not in the first innings anyway. Both bowled too short and the wicket did not suit their type of bowling. England needed a bowler to pitch the ball up and attack the off stump. LBW and Bowled dismissals were the way to go on this pitch and Stuart Broad is a master of this. In some ways, Broad is similar to Gabriel. He bowls from the left of vertical and his stock ball is angled in towards the right hander. He also has the ability to roll his fingers over the ball and bowl the leg cutter so he can generate movement off the pitch away from the right hander. He proved against Warner that he bowls well to left hand openers and John Campbell would have struggled against Broad. He has 485 test wickets and he was the leading wicket taker in the most recent series against South Africa. The decision to leave Broad out of this test was mind boggling. As Captain, Stokes could and should have insisted that Broad was part of his bowling attack.

Deep Point for Dominic Bess?

Bess had a reasonably good test match but he is not the sort of bowler to run through a team. He is a steady off spinner who turns the odd ball, slides the odd one on with the arm, and is very accurate. In a game of Flickit Cricket, accuracy can win the game, but in this Test match, Bess needed a field set to support his bowling style.

Stokes’s decision to have a fielder at Deep Point to an accurate off spinner like Bess is, in my view, poor captaincy. I get that Deep Point is needed in one day cricket because batsmen are more attacking and the reverse sweep is second nature to most. But in a Test match, it is an unnecessary position, particularly when you are trying as a team to build pressure. All the batsmen had to do was angle the bat slightly and the ball would roll gently into the vacant Point area and they had an easy single. I can’t remember a cut shot played against Bess. What I do remember is some splendid cover drives when Bess slightly over pitched which cost him four runs. What was needed was for Deep Point to come up to Point and for Cover to drop to Deep Cover; England would then have conceded only one run, rather than four. It is a much harder shot for a right handed batsman to drive the ball through Point than through Cover. They would have to angle the bat even more which brings the outside edge and slip into play. It is also a lot harder for a batsman to push the ball towards Cover and take a single. The run is harder to judge as the ball will always be spinning back towards the fielder at Point. Stokes should have positioned his quickest, most agile fielder there and tried to tempt the batsman into taking the single. A slight misjudgement could have resulted in a Run Out Chance as the fielder can pounce quickly on the ball and with the natural angle created throw the stumps down at the bowlers end.

Another reason for having Point up stopping the single is that it may force the West Indies batsman into playing shots like a reverse sweep to find the boundary. This could have resulted in a top edge catch or an LBW for Bess. Stokes’s field for Bess’s bowling lacked thought and planning. I think he could have applied far more pressure with a better placed field.

Summary

Stokes may or may not captain England again. I hope he gets the chance again and I am sure he has learnt a lot from this experience. As I said earlier, I am a massive Ben Stokes fan. He is a brilliant cricketer; however ability and captaincy are two separate things. Stokes did his best to lead his team by example, but I believe that on this occasion the decisions he made on and off the field may have cost England the Test match.

Joe Root is the man in charge for the next Test and I really do hope he learns from the tactical and selection errors that Stokes made.

Think you could make wiser captaincy decisions that Stokes? You could always re-enact the match on the Flickit Cricket board - Order one now!