The Shorter Wisden 2013 (50 page)

It said plenty for Prior’s stature that a batting average below 40 felt disappointing. And yet the detail did not tally with the bigger picture, of a supreme
counter-attacker forever willing to put team before self – a trait exemplified by his initiative in phoning Pietersen and having it out with him at the height of the texting trouble. In
India, he added 157 with Cook during the follow-on at Ahmedabad to help convince colleagues the tour needn’t degenerate into a debacle; and he was dismissed for under 40 only once, at Mumbai,
when he was run out. Above all, he was Cook’s eyes and ears, maintaining standards in the field, and assuming the vice-captaincy when Broad was omitted at Kolkata. Missed chances were mainly
limited to stumpings, although Prior was furious after dropping Hashim Amla down the leg side at Lord’s; like everyone else, he now expected himself to miss nothing. But he remained the best
No. 7 in the game, unfulfilled only in his failure to translate his domestic one-day form into an international recall.

He deserved better than to finish by padding up to a straight one from Vernon Philander – a non-stroke that betrayed a body and mind frazzled by the Pietersen farrago. But
Strauss could leave with his pride intact: 100 Tests, and 50 as captain, with 24 wins, only two short of Michael Vaughan’s England record. Typically, he wanted no fuss; nor was there any over
the easy-to-miss fact that he had ended a difficult summer as his side’s leading Test run-scorer. In truth, the hundreds against West Indies at Lord’s and Trent Bridge bucked the trend:
eight times he reached 20 without going beyond the 30s. And if he never ceded the respect of his players, some of his decision-making at the crease fell short of his own high standards; an
ill-conceived sweep off Imran Tahir at The Oval, in particular, rang alarm bells. The wider context, however, was indisputable: an era closed when Strauss retired, and it was one of the greatest in
England’s history. He concluded it in his own way, quietly writing letters to each of his team-mates – Pietersen excepted. In an understated, English sort of way, you might almost have
called them love letters.

If Swann’s summer was an extended blip that was hard to ignore, his form in Asia was the work of an off-spinner worthy of inheriting Jim Laker’s mantle. All but ten
of his 59 Test wickets – second only to Rangana Herath in the calendar year – came in the UAE, Sri Lanka and India, and at a cost of only 24 apiece. He wasn’t just hoovering up
left-handers either: 15 of his 20 wickets in India were right-handers, and at Ahmedabad he passed Laker’s record Test haul for an England off-spinner of 193. Against West Indies in early
summer (six wickets at 47) he had been peripheral. But against South Africa (four at 77) he was simply outwitted, both by Graeme Smith, who played him better than any left-hander ever had, and
Hashim Amla, who negated him with an off-stump guard; at Headingley, for the first time in 43 Tests under Andy Flower, he was dropped. But Swann’s alliance with Panesar at Mumbai, where they
shared 19 wickets, was the best day for English spin since the late 1950s, and his removal of Virender Sehwag with the first ball after lunch on the fourth day at Kolkata changed the tone of the
match. He was limited to nine one-day internationals by England’s rotation policy and an ever-present concern over his right elbow, but in Twenty20s he was mean and incisive. The unspoken
worry in his 34th year was how much longer he could keep going.

Unsung and almost certainly underrated, Tredwell quietly established himself as England’s No. 2 off-spinner. Typically, he let no one down, although his work went beyond
honest yeomanry: at Lord’s, three South Africans were lured to their doom, all stumped by Kieswetter. And he was England’s least expensive bowler during the drawn Twenty20 series in
India.

Innings of 87 at Kolkata and 143 at Nagpur provided a gloss to a difficult year in which his only other century came in defeat at Galle, where it merited more. He kept bumping
into nemeses: Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath removed him three times; South Africa’s Dale Steyn and India’s Pragyan Ojha four each. And yet, with the series at stake in India, there
was something reassuring about the prospect of Trott batting for as long as he liked on a shirtfront. The instinct to drop anchor was as ingrained as ever and, while his Test average slipped to a
shade below 50, it also remained a fraction higher than those of Cook and Pietersen. His one-day form was unfailingly solid – and resolutely unspectacular. A strike-rate of 62 sounded off the
pace, but it chimed perfectly with England’s tactics, especially at home, of careful accumulation against two new balls. The ends usually justified the means.

The closest thing to a Twenty20 specialist in English cricket, Wright turned himself into a must-have accessory for any self-respecting franchise. Among regulars in the
international format, only West Indian Kieron Pollard could better his strike-rate, while his 14 sixes – many of them back over the bowler’s head – were four clear of the next
England batsman. Two innings stood out, both at the World Twenty20: an unbeaten 99 off 55 balls against Afghanistan, and 76 off 43 against New Zealand. He finished by playing the
all-rounder’s role, sending down seven overs in two games against India after bowling only three in the year until then. All in all, it seemed a lucrative way of doing business.

AND THE REST…

James Taylor
(Nottinghamshire; 2 Tests) was handed a Test debut against South Africa at Headingley following Bairstow’s struggles against the short ball,
and Bopara’s personal problems, and he was a determined second fiddle in a stand of 147 with Pietersen. But 14 runs at Lord’s spelled a temporary halt.
Joe Root
(Yorkshire; 1 Test, 1 T20I) made an instant impression when he ground his way to 73 on a surprise debut at Nagpur, and was rewarded with a place in England’s Twenty20 squad and the Lions
captaincy.
Chris Tremlett
(Surrey; 1 Test) played in England’s opening game of the year, the first of the Dubai Tests, then flew home, wicketless, with a back injury. He
never fully recovered.
Graham Onions
(Durham; 1 Test) managed his first Test since January 2010, when the seamers were rotated at Edgbaston, and would have done even better than
four for 88 had Tino Best not erupted.
Chris Woakes
(Warwickshire; 2 ODI) was limited to six wicketless overs as South Africa coasted home at Trent Bridge, where only Cook made
more than his unbeaten 33. England showed faith in the left-arm spin of
Danny Briggs
(Hampshire; 1 ODI; 3 T20I) by entrusting him with the new ball in the World Twenty20 against
New Zealand, although his single over in India was a chastening experience at the hands of Yuvraj Singh.
Michael Lumb
(Nottinghamshire; 3 T20I) was grateful to make 50 off 34 balls
in England’s final game of the year, the Mumbai Twenty20, after one off ten at Pune had raised question marks.
Stuart Meaker
(Surrey; 2 T20I) hinted at the pros and cons of
raw pace, removing Virat Kohli twice while going for nearly nine an over.

PAKISTAN v ENGLAND IN THE UAE, 2011-12

R
EVIEW BY
J
OHN
E
THERIDGE

Test matches (3): Pakistan 3, England 0

One-day internationals (4): Pakistan 0, England 4

Twenty20 internationals (3): Pakistan 1, England 2

At the end of a tour of wild fluctuations, two whitewashes and apathy among many locals, England emerged with their win–loss ledger marginally in credit but their spirits
decidedly in deficit. If a 4–0 victory in the one-day series came as a pleasant surprise, their 3–0 defeat in the Tests that preceded it was nothing less than calamitous. Based on all
previous evidence and any semblance of logic, the results were the wrong way round, although England’s 2–1 win in the Twenty20 games at least offered a fleeting adherence to the form
guide.

Test cricket was supposedly England’s strength. Yet for all three matches their batsmen were teased and tormented by Pakistan’s spinners. They had no answer, and produced some of the
worst statistics for England in any series they had ever played. Then, as soon as the 50-over contests began, England overwhelmed Pakistan with fast-bowling power and four centuries in four games,
all from their openers; the 5–0 defeat in India before Christmas seemed like a bad dream. It was only England’s third one-day series whitewash overseas against countries other than
Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and their first in a series of more than three matches. And it was all very confusing.

England’s exploits in Test cricket over the previous couple of years had been such that even a 3–0 defeat could not dislodge them from the top of the ICC rankings. Yet they knew they
would never achieve their stated aim of becoming an all-time great Test team unless they improved in Asia.

The tone was set on the opening morning of the First Test, when England entered lunch at 52 for five, with Saeed Ajmal already three wickets into an eventual haul of seven. The batsmen looked
undercooked and perhaps even complacent. Their warm-up games had not provided opposition of the highest quality; team director Andy Flower later admitted his side’s preparation for the tour
was not all it might have been. And they were certainly unable to read Ajmal’s mixture of off-breaks and doosras. In the manner of Shane Warne, he had made pre-series boasts about another
mystery ball – the teesra, or third one. There was little evidence of this new delivery – apart, possibly, from a ball sent down with an almost round-arm action. But his two favourite
deliveries proved more than sufficient.

Ajmal finished the three Tests with 24 wickets, although his harvest was not completely unexpected: he had been recognised as the world’s premier spin bowler before the start of the
series. In many ways, Abdur Rehman’s tally of 19 proved more damaging. A journeyman left-arm spinner, whose travels had included four club teams in England, Rehman superbly exploited both the
uncertainty created by Ajmal at the other end and the tourists’ near-paranoia about the Decision Review System.

England’s nervous, tentative approach with the bat added up to some horrendous figures. The middle-order engine room of Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell – utterly flummoxed by Ajmal’s
doosra – and Eoin Morgan was routinely blown away. Pietersen finished with a total of 67 runs, Bell 51 and Morgan 82, and all three failed to reach 40 in any first-class innings. In all
matches on tour, including warm-ups and limited-overs internationals, Morgan had a top score of 31 in 17 attempts. He was dropped for the tour of Sri Lanka soon after.

The top three fared little better. Andrew Strauss extended his sequence to 31 months with only one Test century; like him, Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott managed only one fifty each. England
failed to register an individual century in a Test series for the first time since 1999, when they slumped to the bottom of the Wisden world rankings, and their average of 19 runs per wicket was
their lowest in a three-match series since 1888, when Australia’s new-ball pair of Charlie “Terror” Turner and J. J. Ferris were in their pomp.

Well though Ajmal and Rehman bowled, England batted as if petrified of a third, even more destructive, opponent. Let’s call him Mr DRS. The days of spin bowlers looping the ball, landing
it wide of the stumps and hoping for turn – with a bat-pad catch the most likely mode of dismissal – appeared to have changed for ever, at least in Asian conditions. Instead, Ajmal and
Rehman aimed at pace for the stumps, and allowed England’s inadequacies and the review system to do the rest. A total of 43 batsmen fell lbw – the joint-most for a series of any length,
let alone one of only three Tests.

The alarm England’s batsmen inevitably felt about being struck on the pads quickly gave way to panic. This was with some justification, because umpires now seemed more prepared to give
leg-before verdicts and, once the finger was up, the umpire’s-call element of DRS in effect made the wicket four and a half stumps wide. England’s concerns infiltrated their techniques
and minds. Worried about using their pads, they seemed even more diffident about using their bats: 22 of their batsmen fell lbw, with Ajmal and Rehman claiming 19 between them – Ajmal seven
in the First Test alone. The coaching maxim might have been: “You know that stick of wood in your hands? Well, use it!”