Following on from my last post on the 5 Key areas that India must target in order to win in England, I thought it only fair to shine the light on England and the key aspects of the game that they must improve on. 

Let's not forget that this is an England side that went all winter without winning a Test match, returned home and had to scrape a draw against Pakistan in the early summer series. I could probably give you a list of 55 things that England need to do to improve their Test performances but these are the overarching areas that need to be remedied. 

 
A mentally drained and physically exhausted Joe Root after his side's recent 4-0 defeat at the hands of Australia

  1. Get a fast start 

This has been a problem for English Test cricket for sometime now. India are a high quality side and despite this being a 5 match series we really don't want to being playing catch up after or even during the 1st Test. 

England's performances in the 1st Test of a series have been inconsistent since India last toured. This includes 3 straight defeats in a row. stats source 

It's really difficult to put a finger on what the problem is and how to overcome it. The England team and coaching staff publicly stated after the defeat to Pakistan in the 1st Test this summer that they had spoken at length before the game and were all geared up and ready to go. However, to the arm chair critic like myself that didn't really look to be the case and it certainly didn't translate into any sort of performance from the team. Indeed it took a large degree of criticism after that defeat from the media and cricketing public alike to get a positive response in the 2nd Test.  Demanding that some senior heads (amongst them Stuart Broad) must roll in order to truly shake up this team seemed to do the trick and England came out looking like a different side in the 2nd Test match. 

Do England have the right leadership group and coaching set-up to get the best out the side on a consistent basis? At the moment the Trevor Bayliss & Paul Farbrace partnership has delivered inconsistent results for England in Test cricket. While I've never played sport at an international level, I can at least speak from life experience in terms of the way effective management can work. I hate to be micro-managed or generally told what to do (just ask my wife ;-)) but at the same time I do like to have a manager who can motivate me and keep me on my toes a little. I wonder if the current regime is a little too Laissez-faire in their style. Man management is a tricky business and I'm certainly not advocating the hair dryer treatment but something needs to be done and done before a ball is bowled in this series to ensure the England players are up and running straight away. 

Head Coach Trevor Bayliss and  Assistant Paul Farbrace must ensure England come out of the blocks quickly in this series

2. Transfer the winning mentality from the ODI side into the Test side 

The 2 sides are like chalk and cheese at the moment. The ODI team is thrashing all comers, they look confident in the brand of cricket they play and believe they can win in any situation. Comparatively speaking the Test team is struggling to find an identity and as a result  you can sense a nervousness in the way. 

Since the 2015 World Cup, England have been outstanding in ODI cricket. They are currently ranked number 1 in the world and have won all their most recent series against all other Test playing nations with the exception of Afghanistan whom they have never played an ODI series against. source

Jonny Bairstow has spoken in the week to state he feels it's unfair to compare the ODI team and the Test. He said 

“We will take confidence from that (the ODI series win) into the Test team but at the same time it’s something that we know with Test cricket is completely different."

It is certainly true that the English players involved in both the ODI and Test teams will need to adapt their techniques, particularly the batsmen. At the same time, this is the same England side who at one point looked like they might score 500 in a single ODI innings against Australia earlier in the summer. That kind of hunger and greed for runs and success must be taken into the Test series - see point 3

3. Go big or go home 

England's batsmen have struggled of late to hit the really big hundreds that win Test matches and in many ways this explains their inconstancy in the Test format over the past few years. 

Since 2014 there has been a steady decline in the number of hundreds that English batsmen are hitting in Test cricket. source

The 2010/11 side whom India came up against, was the team of Cook, Strauss, Trott, Pietersen and Bell. The players and the coaching set-up at the time which included Andy Flower (Head Coach) and Graham Gooch (Batting Coach) often spoke of the importance of scoring 'big daddy hundreds' i.e. scores of 150+, the kind of innings that would make it very unlikely for a side to lose a Test and would give your bowlers a fantastic chance of winning it. 

The current side needs to be able to re-create that and take the opportunity once they are in to go big. I've written previously about how I think England should be looking to re-shape their top order and why I think they should take the gloves off Jonny Bairstow, a player who is capable of making those big hundreds if the burden of keeping wicket is removed from him. 

The above chart shows the Indian and English top orders total Test hundreds and their conversion rate from 50's to 100's

Yes, India often play on more benign pitches and therefore you'd expect their batsmen to get more hundreds but it's a worrying stat for England that their likely 3, 4 & 5 in the batting order occupy the bottom places on this graph. Over the course of a career, Test quality batsmen from England should be pushing towards the 33% mark for conversions from 50s to 100's and at present only England's stalwart opener Alistair Cook can boast that feat. 

4. Get the talismanic Ben Stokes back to his best 

Every successful team needs a man who can make things happen and can change the course of a game with a magic moment. Ben Stokes has been England's 'go to guy' for sometime now but a series of injuries and off field problems have restricted his effectiveness in recent times. I have heard lots of talk about how much of a positive impact Stokes has around the dressing room. How his lively, competitive spirit brings out the best in the players around him. The big question though is, who can bring out the best in Stokes?

Ben Stokes managed just 196 runs in 13 innings for Rajasthan Royals in this years IPL. Since returning to England he has been hampered by injury and scored just 2 half centuries for Durham in all forms of cricket in 2018. 

England have been blessed with match winning allrounders over the past couple of generations including the likes of Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff. Neither player was squeaky clean either on or off the pitch and like Stokes they required careful man management to get the best out of them. 

Brearley speaks with Botham during the famous 1981 Ashes series. Brearley has publically stated that England's cricketing authorities should have been more lenient with Ben Stokes at the end of last summer

Mike Brearley, the England captain credited with getting the best from Ian Botham states 

"Captaining Ian Botham called at times for giving him his head, encouraging the instinctual horse to let go all inhibitions, and at other times for reining him in. He was a brilliant all-rounder, with an all-out attacking attitude whether batting or bowling"

Can England find the same balance with Stokes? His batting in particular is probably better and more important to England than either of those 2 great players previously mentioned. Much of England's success in this series and future series will depend on him.

5. Find a way of taking 20 wickets when conditions aren't in their favour 

If the ball is swinging and England have a fit Anderson and Broad with the likes of Woakes and Stokes to back them up then we know that they are going take wickets regardless of who the batsmen are. The fact that this series is set to go into September means that if England can stay in the hunt in these first few Tests (see point 1) then the final couple of games may well throw up conditions in their favour.

But what happens if and when the ball stops swinging or the pitch offers little assistance to the bowlers? England lack genuine pace in their bowling line up and without a world class spinner have resorted to recalling Adil Rashid. 

The stats shown in point 3 above clearly show that if India get flatter pitches then they have the batsmen to make it count. In part it's Engand's failing to do the same that is impacting their bowlers. It's not easy as a Captain or bowler to set attacking fields and hunt for wickets on easier paced tracks when you simply don't have the runs on the board to work with. 

In there last 10 Tests England have taken 20 wickets in a match only twice

From the bowlers point of view, one could ask where has the reverse swing gone? It was a key feature of England's success from around 2003-2011 but it seems to have gone out of their game since then. Stokes can do it as can Mark Wood but it takes the whole team being disciplined in the way they look after the ball to ensure that it becomes an option later in the innings. 

Then there is the question of captaincy. Root has looked a little out of his depth as far as the tactical side of the game is concerned. For what it's worth I also don't particularly rate India's Virat Kohli as a great tactician either. England may need to get creative with some of their field placement and bowling changes and never under estimate what a little bit of good fortune can do for a Captain and his side. As Napoleon Bonaparte once famously said “I know he's a good general, but is he lucky?”