Can England swallow their pride and settle for stalemate in the second Test?
Vithushan Ehantharajah03-Jul-2025
Ben Stokes prepares to bowl on day two•Associated Press
Michael Jordan did not always take clutch shots.Arguably his most famous passing on a moment came at the end of game six of the 1997 NBA Finals against Utah Jazz. In the final seconds, Jordan kicked the ball out to Steve Kerr on the edge of the key, who drained the game winner.”Well, I guess I gotta bail Michael out again,” joked Kerr afterwards. For all his qualities, Kerr knew this was more Jordan’s bag. But even a man who prided himself on being him – one such Jordan make in a playoff game against Cleveland Cavaliers is immortalised simply as “The Shot” – saw the value of going against his nature.Of course, to not feed Kerr in that moment would have been irresponsible. Sure, Jordan is Jordan. But swarmed by defenders, taking up the option of a trusted alternative was a no-brainer. He might have a brand to preserve, but he’s a winner first.Related
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On Thursday evening, as Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj swarmed all over England’s top-order batters, you wondered if they may finally try and kick one out to the reliable free man. One that, while they have never used, has been a handy crutch of pretty much every other team to make a success of Test cricket. The draw.In 37 Test matches since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum joined forces to revolutionise the Test side, England have not once chosen to play for the draw. The sole stalemate in that sequence came during 2023’s Ashes, the result of almost two days of rain being dumped on Manchester. Now, trailing in the first innings by 510, with three days to go, they might have to embrace it.It’s as much an ideological stance as a placebo. Ahead of the summer, Stokes, when handed a scenario of a chase of 400 in 40 overs during an Ashes by Nasser Hussain, joked, “well, Adelaide is short square”, without actually answering if maybe that would be the time to shut shop.That same bolshiness filters to the team, and in creating a belief that the win must be pushed for at all costs, you get situations like last week in Leeds when 371 is chased with little fuss.1:39
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Now, though, we might be on the cusp of England needing to hold on to what they have. Not only do they have a 1-0 lead, but it is one they earned in one of Jasprit Bumrah’s three scheduled appearances. Given the storm that played out on day one following India’s decision to rest Bumrah, they should be wary of offering the tourists a more straightforward route to victory without their frontman. This could be a momentum-shifting equaliser for them.Typically, even in the short history of this England team, there are crumbs to nourish them. While this is only the fourth time in Test history that England have won the toss, bowled, and conceded 500, it is the second time they have done so in the Stokes-McCullum era.That first time came against New Zealand in that 2022 summer, when they strolled down a target of 299 in Nottingham. And while they do not have a Jonny Bairstow anymore, they do have unusually short Test boundaries – none longer than 65 metres – to offer some Trent Bridge-like qualities. It is also worth noting the other two times a team has scored 500 in their first innings – both Pakistan (Rawalpindi 2022, Multan 2024) – England have won.
“What happens tomorrow – and I suppose what happens every day – is a big direction-turner in terms of how we approach the game. I think we’ll have a little think about it tonight and we’ll see how tomorrow pans out, especially that first session”Jeetan Patel
As such, you can forgive the optimism Jeetan Patel brought to the end-of-the-day press conference, particularly with Joe Root and Harry Brook resuming on Friday morning.”Oh, 100%,” England’s assistant coach immediately answered when asked if winning remained a possibility. “I’ve said this many a time in front of all of you and you keep laughing at me,” Patel added, referencing similar utterances two years ago, midway through the Hyderabad heist, and in Multan, when Pakistan had put on 328 for 4 on the opening day of the first Test in 2024.”We’ll just try and find another way to get over the line. And I think that’s the beauty of the team that we have and the players that we have.”There’s still three days of cricket left, there’s lots of cricket to go and, on a fast-scoring ground, I think you never know what can happen… And we’ve got two of the greatest batters in the world at the crease at the moment.”1:11
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And yet, for all that Baz-zeal, there were nuggets of practicality on day two. Slivers of a more considered and less confrontational manner amid the toil, hinting at a more open view of preservation.Previously, Stokes might have hammered the short-ball tactic, and perhaps even flogged himself out of being able to fulfil his allrounder role fully in the third Test at Lord’s. Instead, he and Chris Woakes tried to eke something out of the new ball at the start of play.As soon as that trail went cold – England have this pitch down as a new-ball wicket, and could themselves have had India 20-odd for 3 on day one, as they themselves were on day two – neither Stokes (having bowled the 92nd over) nor Woakes (93rd) were seen again for the remaining 58 overs of the innings.Brook bowling five overs of filler, on the ground where he came on as first-change against Australia two years ago, could not have better summed up this shift from their galaxy-brain ideas. And though he later launched an aggressive retaliation when charging Siraj and clouting him back over his head for six – taking England to 50 for 3 – the 23 dots he and Root accumulated together as they saw out the final five overs were geared towards survival.1:24
Aaron impressed with Akash Deep’s pace
Prior to the start of this series, Stokes spoke about the need to be smarter in situations when the opposition are in control. And those final 13.5 overs, having been 25 for 3, spoke to that.”What happens tomorrow – and I suppose what happens every day – is a big direction-turner in terms of how we approach the game,” Patel said, perhaps hinting at a more open perspective to other results than he had previously let on. “I think we’ll have a little think about it tonight and we’ll see how tomorrow pans out, especially that first session.”There is a broad understanding within the England dressing-room that this chapter of their story should be about success. And they know their default style of play will fulfil the entertainment side of the deal, without having to force it.But the most loved Test teams are the ones that win series. And nothing will be cherished more than achieving those against India and then Australia.That might mean going against the brand from time to time. And this could play out as one of those times. The relentless pursuit of wins is not always a route to success. Even Jordan kicked a few out to someone else.
