Harry Brook celebrates after completing his century.
Credit: Reuters photo
Birmingham: Harry Brook and Jamie Smith, the future batting stars of England cricket, unleashed the brutality of ‘Bazball’ on hapless Indian bowlers as the ‘moving day’ of the second Test motored on at the rate of knots here on Friday.
Joining forces in the second over of the day with England in deep trouble at 84/5 in response to India’s mammoth 587 all out, the 26-year-old Brook (140 n.o., 209b) and the 24-year-old Smith (157 n.o., 169b) counter-attacked in spectacular fashion with blistering centuries that sucked the life out of the visiting bowlers on a lifeless track at Edgbaston.
From staring down the barrel after 10 balls in the day against a pumped-up India, England ended up reaching 355/5 at tea with both Brook and Smith primed to wreak more havoc.
With pitches in England being as flat as the pothole-free roads here in the coach Brendon McCullum era with hardly any help for the bowlers in terms of swing, seam or movement — a complete departure from the surfaces of old which were a fast bowler’s ally — whatever Indian bowlers had to do, they had to in the first hour when the ball was slightly fresh and conditions were overcast.
And Mohammed Siraj (3/57), leading the attack in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah who has been rested as part of workload management, meant business right from the word go. A cricketer with a lot of heart who, at times, doesn’t get the reward for all his effort, had the rub of the green go his way when Joe Root nicked one down to the leg-side. The next wicket of Ben Stokes of the very next delivery was a thing of beauty, the pacer bending his back and extracting sharp bounce off good length that caught the England skipper by surprise. He ended up edging it to Pant as Siraj breathed fire. India were all over England and the fans in the Hollies section looked rattled.
This New England side, however, never backs away from a battle and relishes fighting fire with fire. That’s exactly what Smith and Brooks did to leave the Indian bowlers shell shocked. Smith announced his intentions when he hammered Prasidh Krishna for 23 runs early on in his innings that got the confidence flowing in him. From there on, Smith never took the foot off the pedal as he went after every Indian bowler, taking a special liking for Prasidh though. Smith’s daredevilry rubbed onto Brooks too as runs flowed like a river, England scoring 172 runs in 27 overs (6.37 run rate) in the first session.
Yes, Smith and Brooks adopted a high-risk approach which paid off on a flatbed that had nothing in it for the bowlers, especially after the ball got soft post 40 overs. But the Indians were equally culpable for playing into their hands. Just like Leeds, skipper Shubman Gill got Prasidh to bowl short consistently and the result was similar — ball sitting up nicely for the batters and the Karnataka pacer getting caned badly.
They learnt their lessons in the second session when they switched to the outside off-stump line with the length being fuller. They attempted to stifle the duo, forcing them to manufacture shots. Both Brook and Smith, at times, appeared frustrated but they swallowed their ego and played the situation smartly. They pulled out some unconventional shots but the Indians managed just to stick to their lines and lengths. While it contained the run flow, it didn’t bring any wickets as the partnership between Smith and Brooks touched 271 runs.
Even spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, who was picked off Kuldeep Yadav, couldn’t make much of an impact. It was at that time when it felt the management had erred in ignoring Kuldeep, who with his left-arm wrist-spin could have challenged Brooks and Smith.
SCOREBOARD
INDIA (I Innings): 587
ENGLAND (I Innings, O/n: 77/3):
Crawley c Nair b Siraj 19
(30b, 3x4)
Duckett c Gill b Akash 0
(5b)
Pope c Rahul b Akash 0
(1b)
Root c Pant b Siraj 22
(46b, 1x4)
Brook (batting) 140
(209b, 15x4, 1x6)
Stokes c Pant b Siraj 0
(1b)
Smith (batting) 157
(169b, 19x4, 3x6)
Extras (LB-5, NB-11, W-1) 17
TOTAL (for 5 wkts, 75 overs) 355
Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Duckett), 2-13 (Pope), 3-25 (Crawley), 4-84 (Root), 5-84 (Stokes).
Bowling: Akash 15-1-70-2 (nb-5), Siraj 15-2-57-3 (nb-4), Prasidh 13-1-72-0 (w-1), Nitish 6-0-29-0, Jadeja 15-2-57-0 (nb-2), Sundar 11-0-65-0.