England must confront old spin concerns
The Ashes are regained, but England have been horribly poor at The Oval not least in their playing of Nathan Lyon which does not bode well for challenges ahead
George Dobell at The Oval22-Aug-2015Leonard Cohen almost certainly wasn’t thinking about England’s tour of the UAE when he wrote “I’ve seen the future, brother: it is murder” but he might as well have been.To see England’s batsmen grope and prod at the offspin of Nathan Lyon at The Oval was to be filled with trepidation for how England will manage when they take on Pakistan in a couple of months. They were criticised for urinating on the pitch the last time they celebrated winning the Ashes here in 2013; you could make a strong argument to suggest they did something far more unpleasant on it this time.Lyon is a fine bowler. He is the best Australian offspinner since Tim May, at least, and perhaps the best for some time before that. But he is a traditional offspinner – the sort that England players used to be brought up against – and this Oval surface is what old timers might have described as a slow turner. The surfaces in the UAE will turn and skid far more.In Pakistan’s legspinner Yasir Shah they will also come up against a bowler with far more weapons than Lyon or Steven Smith, the part-time legspinner who dismissed Alastair Cook here. Bearing in mind that England lost 3-0 the last time they played Tests in the UAE, at the start of 2012 after they had just risen to No. 1 in the world rankings, it is hard to be wildly optimistic over how they will fare this time. Mahela Jayawardene, who will be with the team as a batting coach for the first couple of weeks of the UAE tour, may feel he has to be an alchemist.England have long had a poor reputation against spin bowling. While they may have consoled themselves, at times, in the belief that it was only against wrist spin or mystery spin that they have struggled, there have been enough days against the likes of Rangana Herath and Abdur Rehman – pretty conventional spinners – to suggest the problem goes someway deeper.The evidence has been clear to see in this match. England batsmen have been dismissed in ways that betray basic failures against basic spin bowling. That is not to say the bowling was anything other than good; but that it was often clear what Lyon was trying to achieve and England’s batsmen really should have had the ability to counter it a bit more effectively.Take the example of Ben Stokes on the third day. Stokes was drawn into a drive by a beautifully flighted off-break delivered from round the wicket that turned, perhaps out of the rough, took the outside edge and carried to slip. Easy.Or take the example of Jonny Bairstow. Pushing half forward with hard hands to one from over the wicket, he turned a catch into the hand of short-leg as obliginglyas if he had been organising catching practice. Horribly simple.Or take the example of Jos Buttler in the first innings. With Lyon bowing round the wicket, Buttler was drawn into driving – with his front foot having moved perhaps an inch – and was bowled through a gate so large you could place stone lions on either side.On each occasion, the batsman made a basic error. On each occasion, the batsman was too timid to leave their crease, yet pushing for the ball in a vaguely aggressive manner. On each occasion they were unable to reach the pitch of the ball and pushed with hard hands. Perhaps because they have so little faith in their defence against spin bowling, they seek to attack instead. Against good bowlers in helpful conditions at Test level, it is a method that is destined to fail.Cook showed – as he did in India in 2012 – how it could be done. Learning from his first innings dismissal, when he was bowled playing half forward to a fine delivery that turned and beat his outside edge, he made a noticeable effort to reach further forward in the second innings to smother the spin. And when Lyon compensated by pulling back his length, Cook deployed his trademark cut shot. He did not attempt to push for the ball – only four runs in his innings came in the V between mid-on and mid-off – and while he finally fell – failing to get to the pitch of a leg-break from Smith – he had given his side an outside chance of salvaging a draw if the weather intervenes on days four and five.England should not allow that to mask the obvious deficiencies they have shown here, though. They need to examine why they are producing so few spin bowlers and why they are so poor at playing it. They need to ask questions of those charged with developing the skills and put in place mechanisms to correct the shortfalls.Part of the problem is the lack of quality spin bowling that developing England players face in county cricket. With much of the County Championship programme squeezed into the opening weeks of the season – weeks when the pitches offer little assistance to spinners – there is less reason for counties to invest in spinners with red ball skills.Instead, there has been an emphasis on slow bowlers – and the distinction between slow bowlers and spinners is relevant – with white ball skills. England have a plethora of men who can bowl a tight couple of overs in a T20; they have almost nobody who can bowl in the attacking manner Lyon has managed in this series.The problem is exacerbated by the policy of financially incentivising counties to select young players. It has purged the game of mature performers; not necessarily international-quality players, but experienced performers who added to the quality of the domestic game and the knowledge in domestic dressing rooms.But the ECB meddling does not stop there. They have also had a habit of penalising counties who prepare pitches that offer ‘excessive’ turn, while pitches which offer excessive assistance to English-style seamers are usually tolerated. There was an obvious example at Hampshire a couple of seasons ago when, despite the game going into the fourth day (albeit the first was washed out), the club were harshly penalised.As a consequence, some of the skill has gone out of the game. There are a few old-timers left – the likes of Gareth Batty and James Tredwell – but they are the wrong side of 30 (quite a way the wrong side in Batty’s case) – while Nottinghamshire picked 40-year-old Gary Keedy earlier this season.Men from a previous age – the likes of Vic Marks, John Mortimore, Eddie Hemmings, Don Shepherd, Rodney Ontong, Norman Gifford and Brian Langford – who all played little or no Test cricket, would all soar in the current playing age.There will be calls to recall Monty Panesar ahead of the UAE trip. But while he bowled nicely there on the last tour and it is pleasing to see his personal problems have eased sufficiently for him to return to the professional game, it would be a major surprise if they have improved sufficiently to render him able to tour.Instead, alongside offspinner Moeen Ali and legspinner Adil Rashid, England may look at the left-arm spin of Zafar Ansari to the UAE. Not only has Ansari claimed 39 first-class wickets this season – he is missing Surrey’s current Championship game due to a hamstring injury – but he has, at times, opened the batting. His batting average is only 30.18 but he is young – 23 – bright and his talent and temperament are rated highly.It would be a big ask for a young man and a reminder that, despite the Ashes win, England are at the early stages of their development. There is a long, long way to go.