The second day’s play leaves the second match of the Investec Test series beautifully poised with England responding with 219 for 6 in reply to India’s first innings score of 295. Just as the first day was dominated by a young batsman new to Test cricket, Ajinkya Rahane of India, the second day of the Test at Lord’s was also dominated by a very talented young batsman, Gary Ballance of England, who made his second hundred in only his fifth Test match. This was also Ballance’s second Test century at the Lord’s in only his second match here.
But the second day’s play was also dominated by the chatter around England’s beleaguered captain, Alistair Cook. Cook has contrived to get himself out for yet another low score, scoring just 10, before tamely edging swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar to the wicketkeeper, MS Dhoni. It was a dreadful innings, with Cook’s deep uncertainty and an abject loss of confidence showing with almost every ball faced by him. This means that he has now scored 616 runs in 26 innings, at an average of 23.69, and this summer he has so far made only 93 runs from six innings. Clearly his performance is unacceptable and untenable, as there is only so long that even a captain of a national team can survive with this sort of performance.
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The vultures are already out for Cook, most prominent of them being one of England cricket’s greats, the outspoken Geoffrey Boycott. Boycott has always been critical of Cook, and his present run of form has only served him more ammunition for his attacks. “I hope he gets runs in the second innings,” said Boycott,“If he doesn’t he should leave himself out. It’s not helping the team and there’s no I in team. He should do it himself, say ‘Hey, I need to get away’. Even if he does get runs now, he’ll still be under pressure going down to Southampton [the venue for the third Test, which starts next Sunday]. It’s gone on for a long, long, long time.” Even Cook’s close friend and former teammate Graeme Swann, couldn’t stay silent anymore. “I feel very deflated for Cook,” Swann said. “I feel for him as a mate. Hopefully he’ll get a second chance in the match. I hope nothing crazy happens but I think everything is coming to a head.”
While Cook has been getting all the attention, Ian Bell’s performance hasn’t been too great either. In this innings too, he was out for another low score of 16 before falling victim to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. In fact, this summer, it has been the young English players such as Ben Stokes, Gary Ballance, Sam Robson, Joe Root and Moeen Ali who have been holding the team together, as all the senior players have faltered and failed spectacularly. Today it was Gary Ballance and to an extent Moeen Ali’s turn to show the seniors how the game was to be played.
Ballance is a solid batsman with great temperament, who makes the best of his limited talent with sheer determination and the will to survive at the highest level. There are several question marks over his batting technique, especially with his tendency to shuffle across, which leaves him vulnerable to a left arm fast bowler such as Mitchell Johnson. But against the medium pace dominated Indian side, Ballance had no problems, and looked highly comfortable. Ballance made exactly half of the runs scored by England, which shows the great importance of his innings. England were in a spot of trouble when Ballance got together with Moeen Ali in a partnership of 98 crucial runs that got England into a respectable position. He reached his hundred with a couple of fours against the military medium pace of Stuart Binny.
England would have emerged in a better position than India’s at the end of the days play had Ballance not edged Bhuvneshwar Kumar to Dhoni, well in the concluding minutes of evening session. Now, the match looks precariously balanced with a lot hinging on Matt Prior’s performance tomorrow. Matt Prior is another of England’s senior players who has underperformed this summer, and it is critical for England’s prospects in this Test for him to turn things around.
