Former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain criticised England's tactics to the New Zealand tail on day two of the second Test at The Oval, labelling their short-ball ploy 'inept'.
Speaking during the Lunch interval on Sky Sports Cricket, both Hussain and Atherton criticised England's performance in the field, and bowling plans. Having finished day one on 291-7, New Zealand reached 391 before they were bowled out at the end of the morning session, with Glenn Phillips reaching a maiden Test century. While England looked threatening when Jofra Archer directed a short-pitched volley at Phillips last night, the bumpers from the rest of the inexperienced pace attack leaked runs. Kyle Jamieson scored 48 off 41 balls before missing a Jacob Bethell delivery which took out his stumps.
"I thought England were pretty inept this morning," said Atherton. "Tactically, they were very hard to understand. That short ball ploy from the very first ball of the day, they were scruffy in the field – the drop catch from [Ben] Duckett – 51 extras, 22 byes, the no ball that you mentioned, Jofra Archer not appearing until 15 overs into the second new ball. So, all told that was a really poor effort from England this morning, and they’ve allowed New Zealand to get from 188-5 and wobbling when Daryl Mitchell got out to 391."
Bethell ended the innings as England's leading wicket-taker, returning figures of 3-26 off 10 overs. Both Josh Tongue and Sonny Baker conceded their runs at over four an over, with Baker taking punishment from Jamieson before the new ball was taken.
Hussain: England must look at how they bowl to the lower order
England have previously copped criticism for bowling short-pitched deliveries to the lower order. In the first Test of the series at Lord's, Jamieson put on 38 off 29 balls in New Zealand's first innings, served a diet of short balls from England's attack.
"England always, always, go for the short-pitched bowling ploy, and it very rarely works," said Hussain. "They would argue that if Duckett had taken the catch in the deep, well there you go. But it wasn’t just the short-pitched bowling, it was the line of it as well. A lot of the bouncers were outside off, and Jamieson likes it there, and then poor old [James] Rew behind the stumps, the ball was wobbling all over the place, he’s letting byes through.
"... If it was just a one off, you’d go okay they got it wrong, but they must look at the way they’re bowling at lower order batters, they’ve got to bring the stumps into play. The only way you’re going to get a wicket with that type of bowling, is if a batter hits it up in the air and gets caught in the deep, because you’ve got no slips in so you’ve got to pitch it up. If you go the other way and mix it up a bit, you can bring in lbw, you can bring caught in, and then with the odd bouncer, you can bring caught in the deep in."
England made five changes to their XI that won at Lord's last week, including three changes to their pace attack. Jofra Archer came back into the side, while Sonny Baker was handed a Test debut, with Matt Fisher returning to the side after four years. Ollie Robinson is missing the Test with soreness to his knee, while Gus Atkinson is unavailable after breaking team protocols. England chose to drop Shoaib Bashir as a specialist spinner for this game, opening up a spot for an additional seamer.
"I made the point on commentary with Mark Wood about something a former coach of ours used to say," said Atherton. "That he liked a team with a critical mass of senior players, so that in those moments when it’s a little bit chaotic, someone can come in and say 'hang on a little bit, lets slow this down, lets change tactics, lets just try and change the flow of the game'. But there isn’t that critical mass of senior players for all sorts of reasons."
England saw out the first three overs of their innings before lunch without incident, and reached 64-1 half an hour after the interval. Ben Duckett was run out by Nathan Smith for 36 off 25 balls.
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