Stokes is bravest England captain of all but Test is in balance

 A tale of two leaders with one making a courageous call at the toss, the other playing a plucky innings. It is too early to judge whether Ben Stokes is England’s greatest captain but he is certainly the bravest.

He has thrown out English negativity with bat and ball and reversed convention over what to do when winning the toss on a flat pitch. For the 10th time in 12 home Tests he decided to bowl first, ignoring blue skies, a flat deck and backed his bowlers to do the business.

He will be satisfied that India failed to really punish England on a good day for batting, while his opposite number Shubman Gill underlined his leadership credentials with a first-innings hundred for the second time in the series to also walk off a happy man.

Gill’s serene 114 was the foundation of India’s 310 for five and if they can avoid more tail-end collywobbles they could still bat England out of the game and then hope their two spinners can undermine Stokes’s chasing theory, especially if Edgbaston breaks up more than Headingley. Equally, Stokes will believe if England can remove Gill early with a second new ball only five overs old, they can grab hold of the Test and put the boot into an India side that gormlessly did not pick a fit Jasprit Bumrah.

This was a day of cagey Test cricket in front of a packed house at Edgbaston that ended in the balance. The 99-run stand between Gill and Ravindra Jadeja for the sixth wicket balanced out Stokes’s skill for eking out wickets but after conceding 359 for three on day one at Leeds he will be content with this.

There are many examples of Stokes’s strong leadership but perhaps the walking, breathing example of it is Shoaib Bashir. Very few outside Stokes’s inner circle have seen the same potential in Bashir but Stokes has backed his man and he delivered at Edgbaston with perhaps the cleverest wicket of his career to date when he dismissed Rishabh Pant.

England asked for a short boundary running around the City End, partly so they can try to take down India’s two spinners, but also because it is an irresistible tempter for a destroyer like Pant.

After his twin Headingley hundreds and India’s two collapses in the first Test, the Pant-Gill fourth-wicket combo was crucial and nearing 50 when Pant holed out for 25. Stokes had posted a mid-on and wide long-on. 

Bashir, from round the wicket to the left-handed Pant, bowled a couple wide-off before dropping his pace and sending down his slowest ball of the day (46mph) on leg stump. Pant, trying to hit it straight, was early on the ball because it was slower and Zak Crawley had time to run round from long-on and take the catch.

It opened up the bowling all-rounders and Chris Woakes, who was on the money all day, knocked over Nitish Kumar Reddy shouldering arms in the next over. After tail-end horror shows of seven for 41 and six for 31 in Leeds, India were in the danger zone but packing their batting gave them an extra layer of insurance and Jadeja backed up Gill to avert another crisis. India have picked the wrong team for this match, making three changes and leaving out their champion bowler at 1-0 down. They were negative by selecting the better batsman spinner in Washington Sundar over leggie Kuldeep Yadav but they may still end up winning.

Stokes has no compunction about challenging his bowlers, and himself, to take 20 wickets on a flat pitch and he has only lost once when opting to bowl first. It takes total buy-in from the players and England’s commitment was seen in the field, they were so sharp all day.

England’s plans were better than Leeds and Woakes was much improved because of the overs in his legs. He was the pick of the attack, deserved more than two for 59 and could have dismissed all the top three with more luck from close leg-before umpiring decisions.

The new-ball combination with Brydon Carse works because they complement each other. Woakes kisses the top, Carse hits the pitch, reaching 92mph and roughed up Yashasvi Jaiswal early on. He was a handful all day.

The only let-down was Josh Tongue who conceded eight fours in his first six overs and looks a notch below the level he was at when he first played Test cricket two years ago. He was tighter in his second spell but never looked like taking a wicket.

For India, Jaiswal was again solid. He survived a Woakes lbw by a whisker on 12 but looked to be easing to a hundred when he fell on 87, Stokes conjuring a wicket from nowhere with a wide ball that Jaiswal nicked behind.

Gill batted with calm precision and already looks a man capable of shouldering the burden of captaincy, at least at the crease anyway. This was a chanceless hundred, an innings of real authority from a young captain recovering from a bruising defeat in his first match.

He struck 12 fours and reached his hundred off 199 balls, a classic innings of accumulation and exhibition of dispatching the bad balls with grace and timing.

England’s line of attack was better to KL Rahul, India’s second-innings century-maker at Headingley. This time they were much straighter and he played on to Woakes when he nipped one back in. Karun Nair was pushed to No 3 as part of India’s panicked rejig and he looked better, making a counter-punching 31 but failed to go on, falling to Carse at the start of his second spell when extra pace and bounce brought the error; Nair fending to slip.

Pant hit one six, and played his falling paddle off Bashir but never really found his range, perhaps a bit more risk averse after the defeat in Leeds. The Hollies Stand booed every time he patted back Bashir and in the end he could not resist the bait.

Perhaps the biggest cheer of the day was for Jofra Archer when he walked round the boundary to deliver drinks as part of his 12th-man duties. It was a reminder Strokes has power to add to his armoury regardless of whether he is able to gloat over another toss decision paying off.