Cricket Comment: England still facing uphill task to win series
IMPRESSIVE though it was, yesterday marked England’s first victory for almost a year and talk of them now steamrolling India and winning the series is premature.
Positives weren’t hard to come by, though, so let’s enjoy those first.
Alastair Cook got big scores and won the match, and nobody is questioning his captaincy skills. He has definitely silenced his critics at least until the end of the summer.
Gary Ballance underlined his Test claims. He played two different innings – one grafting, the other quickfire – and he’s here to stay in a batting order I like the look of.
Credit to Moeen Ali, who I haven’t always been a huge fan of but who impressed me – and many others, I’m sure – in this match. As a spinner, there is a tendency to compare him to Graeme Swann, and Moeen isn’t in his predecessor’s league. Having said that, Moeen got 6-67 and can hit a century. Swann never did that.
The man who took the most out of the match, though, has to be Jos Buttler. Regular readers will know that I would have had him in at the start of the summer; his sort of talent is wasted at county level.
As a wicketkeeper-batsman, the benchmark is Adam Gilchrist. Our equivalent was Matt Prior, who was the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the world at a time but not fit to lick Gilchrist’s boots.
Buttler’s batting, though, makes him a game-changer. Nobody is complaining about Buttler’s keeping either, and that will only get better.
The worry is that James Anderson, by far England’s best bowler, will be banned for the last two Tests for an altercation with Ravi Jadeja, because Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan do not come close.
I expect India to regroup quickly for next week’s fourth Test, with Virat Kohli one a few players due to improve. Without Anderson, England lose 15 per cent of their potency, and I think the hosts will find it very hard to beat India in his absence.
Andy Lloyd is a former England Test cricketer who has served as captain and chairman of Warwickshire.