Cricket Corner: England and West Indies soar to improbable and inspiring heights
In a nod to the longest form of the game - Test cricket - the article is broken into three sections to mirror the main intervals in a day’s play: Lunch - the main course; Tea - something extra; and Stumps (the end of play) - something to ponder over a few drinks at the bar.
Lunch: England put India under pressure
We wondered last week what was considered winning in India when no visiting side has won a Test series for a decade but Hyderabad heroes Ollie Pope (196 runs in the third innings) and Tom Hartley (7-62 in the fourth), proved that, for England, 'winning' could be… well, winning this series. The brilliant Bazballers are now 1-0 up and India will be without star allrounder Ravindra Jadeja and middle-order batter KL Rahul for the second Test. That’s on top of missing Virat Kohli, who continues to be unavailable for personal reasons. India have now lost two of their last three home Tests after having lost just two in the 44 before that and now they are three good men down to boot. Mini crisis?
We’ve all had time to digest England’s triumph by now but it’s worth dwelling on it once more in this light - India had never previously lost a home Test after leading by 100 runs or more after the first innings. In Hyderabad, they were 190 runs ahead and when England were five wickets down in their second innings, they were still leading. Enter Pope to sweep England into an improbable position. Then enter Hartley to spin them home. Those are two performances that will be remembered by fans and experts alike for years and the win is already being celebrated as one of England’s greatest away from home.
There was a sense going into to the series of inevitability that India would win - admittedly, here on Cricket Corner as well - but Stokes and his side have made everyone stop and ask: Hang on, could they? That, in a nutshell, is what is beautiful about this England team. They flip preconceptions on their head.
Suddenly, Rohit Sharma and his troops find themselves under a rather unique amount of pressure and that isn’t something they have always handled well with the weight of their fans and local media oppressive at times (see the World Cup final). Replacing Rahul in the top four will likely be Rajat Patidar for his debut as he was the spare batter in Hyderabad. Patidar has 4000 first-class runs at just under 46 with 12 centuries. That’s impressive. However, what’s even more impressive is Sarfaraz Khan’s record. Sarfaraz has been called into the squad for the second Test along with all-rounder Washington Sundar and spinner Saurabh Kumar.
Long mooted for a Test call-up, Mumbai native Sarfaraz has a similar load of first-class runs to Patidar but at the incredible average of 69.85. That is the fourth-highest first-class average of anyone with a minimum of 50 innings... anywhere. He made headlines in 2020 when he scored 301* in a Ranji Trophy match for Mumbai but has been continually overlooked, such is the depth in India’s batting. It should be added that there have also been question marks over his fitness. He may not play in the next match but if he does get a chance this series, he’ll be coming in with a record that most players can only dream of. One thing is for sure, the second Test will be captivating viewing whoever walks out in Visakhapatnam.
Tea: Will the Windies keep smiling?
England’s win in Hyderabad was enough drama for most weekends but the West Indies completed their own incredible victory earlier on Sunday in Brisbane. The hero for them was Shamar Joseph. The seamer from Baracara, Guyana had only played a handful of first-class matches before his debut in the first Test of the series. He followed up his encouraging display in Adelaide with a magnificent haul of seven wickets in the final innings in Brisbane to single-handedly bowl his side to a famous victory over the world Test champions - the West Indies’ first victory in Australia since 1997.
The media had already gone gaga for the Guyanese quick in the aftermath of the first Test given Joseph’s incredible rise from relative obscurity to the limelight. However, in Brisbane, he took what was a good story and turned it into an unforgettable one. Having to leave play on the third evening of the day-night Test after his toe was crushed by a Mitchell Starc yorker, Joseph was all but resigned to not appearing in the match again on the fourth morning. However, pumped full of painkillers, he was talked into playing. Just past 14:30 local time, he took the ball with Australia two down for 100-odd chasing just 216. By 17:22, Shamar had taken his seventh wicket and Australia’s 10th to win the match. If you could bottle the feeling of Joseph running off in celebration after the final wicket, you'd drink it every day.
It’s been some introduction to international cricket for Joseph, who said in the afterglow of the win that he would always play Tests for West Indies no matter how much money was thrown at him from Twenty20 (T20) franchises. Their next red-ball engagement is a three-Test series in England in July and that’s it for 2024. Next year, it's just two Tests against Pakistan before the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle ends midyear. So, it shouldn’t be too hard for Joseph to keep his word. He is already attracting attention, however. He’s been ruled out of joining his ILT20 franchise due to his injury but, since his heroics, he’s been picked up by Pakistan Super League (PSL) side Peshawar Zalmi - the PSL starts in mid-February. Yes, another one to worry about.
Joseph wasn’t the only one who got fans smiling in Brisbane, too. Allrounder Kevin Sinclair, on debut, performed an incredible backflip to celebrate taking the wicket of Usman Khawaja as can be seen in the image above. He joined a healthy list of West Indians who will come away from the drawn series with a spring in their steps. Up next, they face a much-rotated Australian side in three one-day internationals (ODI) - starting Friday - before three T20s. The make-up of the West Indies will be changing too with both Joseph and Sinclair no longer involved in the tour. Many of the Windies' heavy hitters will be joining just for the T20 leg with a virtually full-strength side selected for those - should be fun!
Stumps: If a Test is played outside the WTC, did it ever happen?
The aforementioned Tests certainly breathed new life and excitement into the longest format of the game this week. However, for all the brilliance of the West Indies in Brisbane and the epic drama that England’s tour of India will no doubt present over the coming weeks, many other Test series will be less memorable affairs for a variety of reasons. A case in point is Afghanistan’s single upcoming Test match against Sri Lanka in Colombo, starting Friday.
Afghanistan are one the newer Test-playing nations (their first Test was in 2018) and have only ever played seven matches to date. This will be their first against Sri Lanka and they are still yet to play any of Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan or South Africa. They've won three of the Tests they’ve played though, beating Ireland, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh once each. Importantly, the match against Sri Lanka will not count towards the WTC - Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Ireland are not participating in the ongoing cycle (2023-25).
The ascension of Afghanistan (and Ireland for that matter) to Test status is both encouraging and troubling. Encouraging because it bodes well when the competition expands but troubling because the appetite (and arguably time) to organise series with them evidently isn’t there. What does it mean to have Test status if you’ve only played half a dozen matches against the weaker half of the field, especially when those matches exist outside of the WTC?
Tours like these need to be attended (there's free entry to this match) but also made relevant in order to keep the flame of the format burning in the places where this version of the game is at the greatest risk of being lost. Finding a way to build lesser series like these into the WTC could be a starting point for that. The WTC would make more sense if participants had to play every other side at least once per cycle. If it's a scheduling issue, maybe the 12 Test-playing nations should be split into two divisions to make this viable. It’s something to ponder for the administrators of the game as talk of the death of Tests continues to rumble on and T20 tournaments devour calendar space like nothing else before.
As for the match, it should be interesting. Last year, Sri Lanka lost series to both New Zealand (away) and Pakistan (home) 2-0 but obliterated Ireland 2-0 at home. Since their last outing, they have changed captains with Dimuth Karunaratne standing down and Dhananjaya de Silva taking the reins. Their squad consists of the usual suspects as well as the lesser-known and fascinating Kamindu Mendis - a batting allrounder who is one of the very rare ambidextrous bowlers.
Afghanistan will be without talisman Rashid Khan, who is injured, so the Test presents a chance for another of their seemingly endless spinning talents to make an impact on the international stage and on a (typically quite flat) pitch that could offer some assistance as the match wears on. After the sole Test, the sides will play three ODIs and three T20s.
