Some wins represent more than mere victory and while England’s triumph by three wickets over Australia at Headingley was vital enough to keep them in the Ashes, it also suggested a coming of age for Bazball in its ability to be pragmatic and win ugly.
Not that their compromise affected drama levels which for the third Test in a row were off the chart.
Few thought the previous Ashes Test here in 2019 could be bettered, after Ben Stokes’ odyssey snatched unexpected victory for England, but this nearly matched it.
The home team’s chances were better this time, Australia stayed in the hunt until local lad Harry Brook, and later Chris Woakes, played the stabilising knocks that saw England over the line, seven wickets down. There was still the odd wild excess, such as Jonny Bairstow’s drive at Mitchell Starc, but it should be remembered that last year they were streaking for four to wild applause.
Brook, 24, is the apotheosis of Bazball, its poster boy. His fearless, almost brash approach with its emphasis on big shots and even bigger ambition, supercharged England’s batting last winter when he made four hundreds in five Tests. His efforts this Ashes have been more muted, despite getting starts, but then the bowling is of a higher order.
Worse, at Lord’s it looked as if Australia might have found a way to nullify him with the short ball after his refusal to duck the bouncer, even occasionally. Un-cowed, England promoted him to No.3 after Ollie Pope was ruled out with injury, though the experiment was short-lived after Moeen Ali volunteered to bat there in England’s second innings.
It turned out to be a prescient move, although Moeen himself made just five. Brook on the other hand made 75 in pretty much his usual freewheeling style, runs he might not have made at first wicket down when the ball tends to be harder, newer and move more than it does later on.
Brook’s defensive technique is pretty sound but you have to want to defend, something he appears to see as optional rather than necessary, and why wouldn’t you have that attitude after passing 1,000 runs in ten Tests?
Here, though, he was more discerning in his shot selection, as you need to be against bowlers as good and quick as Starc, mostly resisting any temptation to get sucked into the slugging match he got caught up in at Lord’s. Brook seems to possess an unflappable temperament, which is handy, as the Aussies would have sledged him about his shift from three to No.5 mid-match.
Jibes are more subtle than the days of Merv Hughes effing and blinding at batsmen, but there would still have been suggestions that he was running scared and spurning responsibility.
A solid Yorkshireman, Brook was among friends, as he later admitted, saying that some who’d been cheering him from the Western Terrace would enjoy England’s win so much they would probably need to be scraped off the pavement later on (presumably due to extreme drunkenness). The only misgiving, and this from an older generation of cricketer, is that having got himself in he should have seen the job through.
A daring, reckless streak persists and probably always will, but the old adage that when you’re set don’t leave it to someone else, is still worth whispering in his ear.
But for Woakes, England might have struggled to win once Brook went, though this team are not as predictable as some previous ones when placed under duress.
Unlike Brook, Woakes is the antithesis of Bazball having striven his whole career for consistency with both bat and ball. He tried to show willing in the first innings, by swinging hard from the hip and smashing his first ball for six, but he was far more comfortable eking out runs with a straighter bat in the second innings.
Striking the winning runs would have been immensely satisfying for him following as it did a fine six-wicket performance across the match with the ball.
Plagued by injury and underrated by some selectors, Woakes is one of those players who finds themselves integral to most squads but rarely in the final XI, which in home Tests is a mystery.
He took his 100th wicket on English soil at Headingley and they come at fewer runs per wicket (22.69) than James Anderson (24.15), whose place he took. Abroad is a different matter, though, and Woakes’ 36 wickets cost a weighty 51.6.
Together with Mark Wood and Stuart Broad, England possessed a sharp cutting edge with the ball, something that would have been more decisive had the team held their catches.
Wood’s 90mph-plus pace alters the dynamics in subtle as well as obvious ways. Pace like that tends to make tail-end resistance evaporate but it also makes steady bowlers like Woakes more of a threat, in that batsmen will take more risks against them.
Anderson, widely tipped to return for the Old Trafford Test in place of Ollie Robinson, who looked short of rhythm before he suffered a back spasm, would also benefit from the Wood symbiosis, especially if he can rediscover his outswinger.
Modern players seem to prefer their choices narrowed to must-win situations and that is where England remain despite victory at Headingley.
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