Six things from the Headingley Test
I know it's out of fashion to do this but I'm a retro kinda gal. So here are six things we learned from the Headingley Test
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1. India’s Lack of a Holding Bowler Was Costly
Headingley is a fast scoring ground and India didn’t really have a containing bowler. Not that England did either but India really miss Ravi Ashwin. On a flat pitch, every bowler attacked, but no one absorbed pressure. In a chase like that one, having one bowler is just really hard to get away would have made a difference.
2. Bazball Has Matured — Not Reckless, Just Calculated
I don’t know what version of Bazball we are in now - 3.0? 3.11? But we’ve entered the next phase and it was shown in England’s chase - which wasn’t nuts mad like previous ones have been - particularly that one at Trent Bridge against New Zealand. It wasn’t all-out aggression. Duckett’s innings was positive, but measured. Stokes and Root played much more traditionally. Bazball isn’t chaos anymore — it’s evolving into a situationally aware approach for the most part. Bazball has gone smart.
3. Shubman Gill’s Captaincy Felt Reactive
It’s not easy to follow Kohli and Rohit but Gill seemed to lack an aura or presence on the field and he was weirdly reactive - chasing the ball, - one gets edged through a vacant second slip - in comes a second slip. One gets miscued through midwicket - in comes a midwicket. It was particularly noticeable during the partnership between Pope and Duckett. Of course, it doesn’t help your captaincy if your players drop ten catches. That is an area they really will need to improve on - this England team make you pay for mistakes.
4. Let’s put to bed the Ollie Pope debate
Pope’s century wasn’t chanceless but he was under intense pressure both from the bowlers and from the noise surrounding his place in the side. In overcast conditions, against the best bowler in the world and he battled hard and set the foundations for England to achieve first innings parity when the game so easily could have been gone by the end of day two.
5. India’s middle and lower order need to contribute
One of the many strengths of this England team is the depth in the batting - even when you get past the specialist batsmen and into the bowlers, you will get a good number of runs from the likes of Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse. India’s tail are walking wickets and that puts a lot of pressure on the top and middle order and will mean that England feel that once they’ve taken 5 wickets, they can wrap things up cheaply. Josh Tongue mopping up the tail is very useful for England - leaking lower order runs has been a perennial problem for England in recent years.
6. Joe Root’s Role Is Quietly Crucial — Again
Root didn’t score big, but his presence during the chase (and calming influence on Pope and Stokes) was key. He anchors this high-octane England side emotionally — not flashy, but vital in the clutch.
Retro gets my vote. Really interesting insights
The most important lesson from this one was that Bazball has acquired brains.
We must also be careful to not claim England are that far ahead. When someone like Jadeja has a 'mare' in the field, it is a "blue moon" event. I'm still perplexed as to why India didn't pick their wrist spinner,
The seam attack after Bumrah is very 2nd division, Siraj <could> become an asset to Gill, but as in Australia, he is too concerned gobbing off his opinions and frustrations, rather than turning around and delivering the next one just that little bit better to actually get the break through.