In his exclusive blog, the Betway ambassador discusses England’s series win over Pakistan, the appointment of Stephen Fleming as Test coach, and the upcoming series between South Africa and Australia.
Pakistan’s performance is a warning sign for Test cricket
The England-Pakistan series worries me a little bit from a cricket perspective. There are maybe four nations that are performing reasonably well in Test cricket, while numbers five and six look like they are fading away.
Bangladesh did well in a one-off Test against Australia, but for the Test game, you desperately need to try and keep six or seven nations very strong. It looks like it’s going the other way, and South Africa is maybe the last bastion after the big three.
The way Pakistan are operating at the moment does look a little bit shambolic. It’s obviously chaotic in the background in terms of who’s running the ship, and we’ve seen this now in Pakistan cricket for a few years, with Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie walking away previously.
It doesn’t seem like there’s a long-term plan in place in terms of building a squad. You can’t be result-driven in the short term. You’ve got to set out your plan for the next six to 12 months, identify which talents you want to develop, which style of cricket you want to play, which players fit that style, what kind of spinner you need, and so on. Then you’ve got to give that team an opportunity.
When you’re chopping and changing, you never actually develop that growth and the consistency of selection where players feel safe, to a degree.
I understand that sport is driven by competition, but Pakistan have to take a longer-term view on their Test side and figure out who the right players are to move forward with. I like Mike Hesson, he’s a good guy and a good thinker about the game. But if you don’t have the support of the administration team, or decisions are out of your hands, it’s very difficult to build an environment for success. You’re almost stuck putting out fires every tour. So they really do need to change that framework and find a consistent way forward.
England’s questions still remain unanswered
Outside of the confidence from winning and keeping their critics quiet, I don’t think England will take too many answers from what was a relatively easy series for them.
The question I would have for England is, does it answer questions for when they travel away from home? Ollie Robinson’s done really well, but when you’re bowling 125kph with the keeper up and the ball is nipping all over the place, that suits him. Pakistan’s young batters in general don’t grow up in conditions where the ball’s swinging and seaming like that. If England go back to Australia where the pitches have pace and bounce, don’t move as much and it doesn’t swing as much, things might be different.
I don’t know how the South African pitches will play this summer, but England have to balance the books in terms of knowing how they’re going to win outside of England, and how their bowlers are going to compete if the pitches don’t do as much. That’s still the question mark.
Fleming will be instrumental in developing England’s future leaders
England will now go into the tour of South Africa in December with Stephen Fleming in place as the new Test coach.
I’ve always found Flem to be very fair, and a really level-headed, smart thinker about the game, with a good outlook of where cricket’s going and developing.
One of my first tours as a young captain was to New Zealand, and he was then one of the most experienced captains in the game. It certainly was a tough tour, and at the end of it he took me for dinner and we had a very open, honest conversation about leadership and the challenges you face as a young captain. We then developed more of a friendship later on in my career.
He’s been applying his trade with the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL and had a huge amount of success, so it’s an interesting move to see him go into international coaching where the commitments are far more significant. I expect him to be instrumental in developing the next generation of leaders for England. That’s a role he will understand, having been thrown in as a young man, and been around leadership in the game for a long time.
He’s been in the game around youngsters, so he knows the way they think, the way they talk, and the way they operate. If you take it from that perspective, there’s absolutely no doubt that he’s got enough cricketing knowledge and ability to be able to adapt to what’s required in that role.
England played a certain style under Ben Stokes and Baz McCullum, but I expect Flem to bring a bit more balance going forward and to shore up the leadership groups, creating a bit more experience, consistency and stability in the squad.
When coaching England, you’ve got to be able to deal with pressure, and scrutiny from the media and the public. He will absolutely be able to handle the ups and downs of that job. He’s a calm thinker, a good strategist, and starting with Joe Root as captain is a good thing for him.
Harry Brook was an option England could have gone to, but you can be very exposed as a young captain in Test match cricket. With the pace of play, the travel and the structure of cricket at the moment, it’s hard to captain in all three formats. I think that would take a lot of energy out of Brook. He probably wants to do it at some point, but outside of Joe Root in the Test format, Brook is England’s best player and there’s a balancing act of trying to allow him to develop and grow, while keeping his game at the same high level.
Sandpaper scandal will follow Australia in South Africa
Attention now turns to Australia’s tour of South Africa, and the first Test matches between the two sides in South Africa since the ball-tampering scandal.
Talk of ‘Sandpapergate’ will be around for the whole series. If I was in the Australian camp, I would be preparing for it. One thing’s for certain – if it was any other team arriving in Australia, you would hear about it from the media and the crowds from the day you got off that plane to the day you left. Part of touring is dealing with that, and it’s something that Australia can’t shy away from now.
It’s part of their history, and it’s something they’re going to have to deal with, whether it’s at a media conference or in the ground. They’re going to have to have a strategy around dealing with it throughout the tour. Hopefully the cricket will shine through in a really competitive series with lots of great talking points, because I think, in particular, both batting units are under pressure.
There will be some great bowlers on show, especially if Kagiso Rabada can get fit for the series. South Africa against Australia is always an intense series, so hopefully that becomes the talking point.
South Africa’s had a better run up to the series and won the World Test Championship final, but to still not to not have a batter averaging in the 40s in Test cricket is just unheard of. Australia have obviously got Steve Smith, and Travis Head is the type of guy that can put you under pressure and play match-winning knocks. But I think from a bowling perspective South Africa have a lot of options against Australia’s batting lineup.
They had a blip against Bangladesh, but I’d never underestimate an Australian team. They’re still a side that’s had a lot of success still over the last couple of years, including winning the Ashes.
I think that first Test will be very important from a South African perspective, because if you can play well there are a lot of players in that Australian lineup under pressure from the media and the public, and that can kill your confidence. If the South African team can be really prepared and ready for that first Test, then I think there’s an opportunity to unlock that.
For South Africa, to see our national team consistently performing well in Test cricket and the white ball game is so important. This is a great summer for our guys, with series against England and Australia, Bangladesh coming over, and the SA20 to follow with the World Cup here next year. Over the next year in South Africa, from a player perspective, there’s so much opportunity. If you perform well, you can put your name in lights.
These are the summers that hopefully the players are looking forward to, and want to stamp their authority on and make a mark.
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