Posted: 19:22, July 4, 2022 | Updated: 22:32, July 4, 2022
If you had told anyone watching Alex Lees in the Caribbean that he could play the way he did on Monday in that magnificent opening stand, they would never have believed it. Lees’ transformation from the second innings of the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum was incredible. The sight of him charging Mohammed Shami for the third ball of the second innings here on Monday set the tone for the first pair and England’s chase. Lees immediately put India’s formidable attack on the back foot. The runs just rolled in after that. Alex Lees’ transformation under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum has been incredible Lees celebrates his half-century after helping England start the chase in emphatic fashion Then, when spin was introduced for the ninth over in the form of Ravindra Jadeja, Lees just hit and smashed the bowler behind him to the boundary. He followed it up, in the same over, by back-sweeping Jadeja for four — and he’s not an easy bowler to hit. It was an approach that silenced the Indian fans in the crowd, made the bowlers change length and made the ball roll faster. It was never reckless or headless. This is how Lees played in his early days in Yorkshire, when Jason Gillespie nicknamed him ‘Haydos’ because he reminded him of Matthew Hayden. Maybe that’s why Stokes is batting the way he is because the captain’s attitude comes through to his team. The players have to think, “If our skipper is running on the pitch, then I am too.” Ben Stokes leads by example and encourages the rest of the team to bat without fear What a shame for England that it ended the way it ended for Lees with that confusion after tea with Joe Root because that was the model for how he should play going forward. More than anyone, his mindset has been completely changed by the new administration. This was also an encouraging innings for Zak Crawley. It is clear that he has made minor technical changes in this rearranged final Test. He stands a little higher in the crease, has his weight more forward and his back leg a little less bent. But for me the biggest change was in Crawley’s mindset. It is this big upswing early in his innings that gets him into trouble because, opening in England, it is a low percentage. Crawley gave himself more chances here. Lees was eventually out for 56 after tea following a miscommunication with Joe Root It was also an encouraging innings for Zak Crawley, who reached 46 before bowling He is so talented that he should never have given it away so often, but here he left the ball beautifully – at least until he left a very straight line and was bowled – and that meant the bowlers had to come to him and feed them power from the pads. India were forced to put the ball where Crowley wanted it until, when it was a bit softer, they had to go to their fourth-seamer Shardul Thakur. Crawley was then able to highlight that coverage unit, which is both a strength and an early weakness. He can and should play the shot, just not so early with the Dukes ball moving. That clearance made for Crawley in the end came in the over after the ball had changed, which has been typical of this Test summer and something I don’t agree with. I’m not saying that because this time he went against England. The same was true on day three, when England managed to get a more difficult replacement and suddenly there was movement and uneven bounce. Crawley and Lees celebrate opening century stand, fastest ever for England in a Test There is clearly a problem with this year’s batch of balls. Yes they get soft and yes they are out of shape but that is part of cricket and they change very often. The problem is finding a replacement that has the same use because you just don’t know what the “new” ball will do. The only reason teams keep wanting to trade them this season isn’t because they’re out of form, it’s because they don’t offer any movement. The laws say that balls can only be changed at the umpire’s discretion and it’s not just about whether they can go through the hoops. But they do not exercise that discretion. I saw one of the balls that had been changed earlier this summer and it wasn’t bad at all. Yes, balls do go out of shape, especially if they smash into the boards the way Lees and Crawley hit them on Monday, so unless the ball is so bad it looks like a dog’s dinner, bowlers just have to be forced to continue with it.
