There were some raised eyebrows when England named an unchanged XI for this third Test against West Indies; eyebrows that wondered why, in a summer of supposed renewal for their bowling attack, and with the series win already secured, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum had decided against blooding another rookie seamer.
The logic went that with three more Tests against Sri Lanka to come following a pause for the Hundred, chances for the likes of Matthew Potts and Dillon Pennington would emerge organically. Mark Wood’s pace had put the frighteners up the tourists at Trent Bridge, while Chris Woakes, their banker in English conditions, was returning to his home ground. They also wanted another look at Gus Atkinson to find out how the 26-year-old would cope physically playing his third Test match in the space of three weeks.
Pretty, pretty good was the Larry David-esque answer to that last question as, roared on by 25,000 increasingly well-oiled Brummies, Atkinson helped skittle West Indies for 282 in 75.1 overs on what was a slow, generally flat surface. Delivering more of his zippy wicket-to-wicket hustle that either challenges batters outside off or makes them uncomfortable with the short stuff, Atkinson finished with figures four for 67 and, in what is proving to be a breakout summer, now has 20 victims at 16 runs apiece.
Like Kraigg Brathwaite, his opposite number, Stokes was hoping to bat at the start of the day and through the efforts of his attack – Woakes picking up three wickets and Wood a couple more – the England captain finally got his wish. Not that it necessarily worked out as he might have pictured. At stumps the hosts had conspired to be 38 for three in response, with Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett falling to the new ball in the space of two deliveries and nightwatchman Wood removed for an eight-ball duck.
All told, 320 runs and 13 wickets made for a breakneck start to this final Test and one which also sets up an intriguing second day. Ollie Pope and Joe Root just about held firm before the close but have a fair bit of work to do to prove that their captain’s pre-match talk of “refinement” – the notion that England, with bat in hand, have dispensed with some of their self-defeating excess of the past two years – is more than just words.
Despite that late surge induced by Jayden Seales and Alzarri Joseph, it was another day on tour for West Indies that highlighted how far experience goes given their three highest scorers were also their most capped. Brathwaite doggedly chiselled out 61 from the top of the order and put on 76 with Mikyle Louis, the highest stand in England by a West Indian opening pair since 2007. And after a troubling collapse of five for 39 either side of lunch, Jason Holder, 59, and Joshua Da Silva, 49, pushed back for two hours of impressive graft that prevented things heading south completely.
It was Atkinson who got things moving for England in the 22nd over, returning for a second spell from the Pavilion End – the end that has the breeze but does not typically help away swing – and persuading Louis to nibble at one in the channel for 26 and what was his latest unconverted start. In another theme of the series, the pace of Wood and Atkinson then preyed on uncertainty from an inexperienced middle order to see West Indies stutter to 97 for three by lunch.
Stokes happily entertained the idea before the match that, having hit 97.1mph at Trent Bridge, Wood might soon breach three figures. His speeds were actually down here but hovering around 90mph is good enough for many a batter, not least one struggling like Kirk McKenzie. The left-hander swatted three early fours in almost fatalistic fashion but heard his middle pole uprooted by an inswinger. Alick Athanaze, who shaped up well in Nottingham, then pulled an Atkinson short ball onto his stumps to bring the interval.
The afternoon was also lop-sided but this time the other way around. After Wood strangled Brathwaite down leg with a short-ball – Jamie Smith just about clinging on – and Woakes convinced Kavem Hodge to shoulder arms to a straight one, West Indies were 115 for five and potentially circling the drain.
Step forward Holder and Da Silva, who repelled a working over with the short ball and, in the case of the former, biffed some handsome blows down the ground off Shoaib Bashir to close out the session.
It took a fine setup from Woakes after tea to break the resistance, swinging the 62-over old Dukes ball into the pads of Da Silva for a stifled lbw appeal and then immediately finding the edge with one that went away. Some folks say Woakes will not make it to Australia in 18 months’ time and so should have been moved on this summer. But England, still in the results business at home, rightly see things differently here. Their only concern will be the 35-year-old leaving the field early with a niggle.
Atkinson, meanwhile, looks a promising fit for the long-term goal of this project and after Woakes profited from Joseph’s wild hack, Surrey’s slippery seamer offered two more chunks of evidence. The ball to castle Holder was a beauty, angling into the right-hander and snaking away to beat the outside edge and hit the bullseye. His removal of Gudakesh Motie was simply a snorter, the ball deflecting off the splice over Smith only for Root, running round from slip and unsighted, to hold on with a superb diving effort.
After Bashir wrapped up the innings, Root might have thought his work was done for the day only to be soon be strapping on the pads. Seales had roared back from that sub-par performance in Nottingham by inducing two edges to slip, while Joseph congratulated Duckett on his new baby at the start of the week by bowling him off the inside edge. Day two, which starts with England 244 runs behind, is now pregnant with possibilities.
