England and the top-order illusion which came down crashing in 2021

Dawid Malan has been called up for the third Test between England and India to be played at Leed’s in Headingley starting on August 25, 2021. The move doesn’t come off as a surprise given how terrible a run Dominic Sibley and Zak Crawley have had. It is incorrect to pin the whole blame of the failure of English batting in recent times on these two young batters. The middle-order too hasn’t been firing. But the story in the middle is much better than what it has been at the top for the past few years.

In order to understand how terrible the state of English batting at this moment is, we can simply break down the selection of Dawid Malan. The left-handed batter who had switched from Middlesex to Yorkshire just a couple of years ago has already had a go at Test cricket before. In 2017, Malan was brought into the team and slotted at no. 5. He went to Australia and had played a few promising knocks, especially the 140 at Perth against Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

But, just a year into his Test career, he was dropped out of the Test team, incidentally after the first Test against India in 2018. At the time, his record in Test cricket read as follows: 15 matches, 26 innings, 724 runs at 27.84 with one century and six fifties. A deeper look into his numbers suggests that out of the 19 innings in which he didn’t get a fifty, he failed to cross 30 once and had nine single-digit scores.

Malan has since developed his game and become a better batsman. This year, he has played one first-class inning of 199. In 2020, he averaged 66 in the Bob Willis Trophy, more than anyone who batted a significant run. But that is a record of just five innings and in one of those, he got a double century. So, basically, England picked a player who has played six first-class innings since 2020 to bat at no. 3 against arguably the best attack in the world, smackdown in the middle of a series that seems to be going out of their hands.

On top of it, consider this, Malan is turning 34 next month. And Michael Vaughan thinks it is a good idea to bring in, keeping in mind the Ashes. But, in true English cricketing terms, how many Ashes can he save? One in Australia, maybe. And by the time the next Ashes happens in England, Malan will be 36.

One more thing which strikes out is Malan’s second coming in Test cricket is going to be in a tougher position than it was during the first leg. He batted at no. 5 in 2017-18 and now he will be tasked to bat at a place where even England’s best batter found it tough to score. In case you don’t get the reference, I am referring to the no. 3 position and Joe Root, who, well as far as stats go, couldn’t nail the position. In fact, no one has been able to nail it in quite some time for England.

To say England’s top-order batting in Test cricket has been disastrous in the last few years is an understatement. If you remove Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott, and Gary Ballance from the stats since 2010, you would be surprised with the numbers of every other batter. And Strauss retired in 2012. Cook in 2018. Trott hasn’t played since 2015. And Ballance only briefly had success in 2014. But, before that, I would like to talk about the host of batsmen who have come into the England Test side in the last decade, failed, and left.

The problem started when Strauss left. Between 2012 and 2018 (when Cook retired), England tried 13 openers apart from Cook obviously. That is 13 openers in six years. The numbers of most of them are appalling. Funnily enough for a significant period, everyone thought Cook was the problem. What is even more bizarre is that during this particular period, there were some openers who never played in England. In fact, only seven of the 13 ever played at home as openers and their numbers are quite bad as well.

The problem is not that the openers have not done well in England. Being an opening batsman in England is tough and the challenges are immense. The new Duke’s ball is difficult to bat against anyway. But, these are supposed to be players coming out of the county circuit. All their lives they have played against the moving Duke’s in supposedly overcast conditions, which doesn’t explain the regular failure of every single player England has tried to open with since Strauss.

England openers between 1 Jan 2006 and 20 Aug 2012 (Strauss’ retirement)

Cook and Strauss are sort of the gold standard for an England opening batsman. Left-handed, gritty, strong-headed, good technique, solid temperament, and most importantly, raised in the English county system. Since Cook debuted in 2006, England has not produced a good enough opener. Between his debut and Strauss’ retirement, their duo held the mantle pretty much by themselves, delivering runs in almost all conditions. And as crazy as it sounds, the county system has not produced a solid Test match opener since 2006. That is 15 years. And that is a long time.

England openers between Andrew Strauss’ retirement and Alastair Cook’s retirement (Sept 2012- Sept 2018) Overall

Between 2012 and 2018, England was trying to find someone who could be partner Cook at the top and score runs regularly. But after 2018, the crisis reached another level once Cook retired. Now, England who had been struggling to find a single opener for six years suddenly needed to find two. And county cricket was not helping at all. England did find some openers, but none were good enough to save what was the drowning fortunes of English cricket.

England openers between Andrew Strauss’ retirement and Alastair Cook’s retirement (Sept 2012- Sept 2018) in England

Now, let us shift the discussion from the openers to the no. 3 batsman. The scenario is pretty much the same. In fact, the problem only starts after Trott’s retirement. In 2014, Ballance was used at no. 3 and was an instant success. He had a great summer scoring loads of runs. However, after the summer, his numbers dropped. Since 2016, England has tried around 10 batsmen at no. 3 and no one seems to be scoring runs at that position. As I mentioned earlier, Root’s worst run is at no. 3 and there have been clear indications from the team management that he doesn’t enjoy batting at that position.

Now, you could cut slack for everyone who has batted at no. 3 during this time, because batting has been quite difficult. In the past five years, seam bowling has been at another level. Bowlers have never got more assistance from the wickets and batsmen upfront have struggled. But, this once again goes back to county cricket. If the batsmen coming into the England Test team are the ones who have been groomed against seaming and swinging conditions at the county level, why isn’t their performance up to the mark? One fact could be that the quality of bowling is not world-class. Despite having a lower and an upper-division model, there is a difference between facing Shami-Bumrah-Ishant-Siraj and facing an aging Ryan Sidebottom.

England openers after Alastair Cook’s retirement (Sept 2018-Now) Overall

The whole situation of England’s failure to get a proper batsman in the Test team has a little bit to do with how the county championship has been played this year. There are a few bizarre things happening in England at this moment. And even though Malan’s selection looks the obvious one, he hasn’t played more than one first-class innings this year. ONE.

And you can ask why? It’s simple; it is to do with the scheduling of the English county season. You see, there was a time when the first few days of the week were kept for first-class games while the weekend was for limited-overs contests. This basically ensured that there was active first-class cricket happening through the summer for players to get ready for Test cricket and even give selectors an idea who is in form. But, the introduction of the Hundred has essentially killed that.

This has also been the same problem for Australia. During the time when the Big Bash League happens, there are Test matches going for the national side. However, in case they needed a replacement, that would come from Big Bash and not Sheffield Shield. England has had enough batting worries for almost a decade now and the Hundred doesn’t solve any at this moment and is unlikely to solve any in upcoming days.

England’s No. 3 since 1 Jan 2015 (overall)

The big question in front of Chris Silverwood and Joe Root is who is going to eventually fill those 1, 2, and 3 positions in the Test team. For Headingley, it seems the answer is Haseeb Hameed, Rory Burns, and Dawid Malan. But before even the match has started, this top 3 doesn’t look like anything to write home about. Hameed looked extremely tentative at Lord’s and Burns looked out of sorts. Malan as an idea works for now, but whether in all practicality he can stand out or not is the big question.

The bigger question is also if not these three blokes, then who? Maybe, England could bring back Alastair Cook. The most bizarre thing about England’s batting records is that anytime I looked for any stats for the past decade, all I could see was Cook, Strauss, Trott, and occasionally Ian Bell. But, it’s been a while since they have stopped playing for England. Cook still plays and was the leading run-getter in the Bob Willis Trophy 2020, which was won by Essex.

There are no stats at this moment which makes English batting look good. And to sum up their batting struggles, you just need to observe what has been done by the top three. In Test cricket, it is of utmost importance that the top three batsmen are scoring runs. You can’t think about a single successful team that had a struggling top three.

For now, England seems far from having the right answers. But, the most unfortunate thing is that this problem has been observed, talked about, and written about several times since Strauss’ retirement. England has had a long problem with the top order, but they had players who just came in and played one crucial knock to help them win a match or a series and everyone kept ignoring these problems.

It is remarkable how England has won so many Test matches in the last five years with these problems. It was inevitable that all of that illusion of having a secured top order had to come down crashing at one point and it had to be in the summer of 2021.