- England toil in first day of series as Shubman Gill ton takes India to 359 for three
- Eyebrows were raised when Ben Stokes chose to field on a flat Headingley pitch
- But recent Tests at Leeds show their was method to England skipper’s decision
If evidence was required that it wasn’t an easy decision for Ben Stokes at the toss, it came from India’s new captain Shubman Gill who confirmed he was also going to bowl.
Fifteen years ago, if you’d seen the blue sky and that pitch, of course you would have batted first, but recent history tells you Headingley is a bowl-first ground.
The last six Test matches here have resulted in the side bowling first winning, and the statistics over this past decade show that through every day of a five-day match, the pitch pretty much gets better to bat on.
Think of Stokes’s extraordinary, unbeaten hundred in the 2019 Ashes, of a Shai Hope-inspired West Indies knocking off a target of 322 five down eight years ago or England scoring at 5.4 runs per over to chase down 296 against New Zealand in 2022.
To be fair, the ball did a bit in the morning session too, swinging much earlier than usual. It normally takes 12-15 overs for the lacquer to come off, but here it was swinging after half an hour. England just got their lines and their lengths wrong and India’s batsmen could leave comfortably.
At Headingley, your length needs to be immaculate as a bowler for two reasons. One, it’s the place in England you have to bowl fullest to hit the top of the stumps.
It’s also a very quick-scoring ground because of its lightning outfield, so if you err slightly, and the margin really is minuscule, you go for runs.
England’s seamers were either too full or too short when they over corrected and fabulous players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill will punish you in those situations.
It was also a sign of the attack not having bowled here much. Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue had not played a first-class match in Leeds between them.
Neither had Shoaib Bashir, but the off-spinner performed nicely, offering good control and giving the ball some air in a bid to get it to drop.
When you’re playing against world-class players like the two young centurions Jaiswal and Gill, and the pace of the pitch is good, you’ll get hit around a bit, but at times, I’d like to have seen more control from other members of the attack.
For all the skill Jimmy Anderson provided – in swing, out swing, wobble seam – he gave you that.
I know this is a side that likes to attack and Stokes has asked them to find ways to get wickets, but when it is flat the seamers have to combine with Bashir.
It came down to Stokes himself to do that on day one, keeping the run rate down and waiting for a mistake – as happened for the dismissal of Jaiswal.
Stokes was England’s best bowler. Sensibly, he limited his first spell to six overs and got the ball moving more than the rest of England’s seam attack as the day progressed.
By its end, India were well and truly in the ascendancy and of course the decision by Stokes eight hours earlier looked dubious – but recent history explains his reasoning.
