England must sort out faltering top-order to achieve true greatness in Tests

England have grown leaps and bounds in red-ball cricket since Brendon McCullum has taken over as their Test coach. 

After whitewashing the defending WTC champions New Zealand at home, England have pushed a robust Indian team to the verge of defeat in the ongoing fifth Test between the two sides in Edgbaston. 

Although their growth in Test cricket has been exponential in recent times, England are still searching for a reliable opening pair in the traditional format of the game. 

England’s opening woes started right after Andrew Strauss bid adieu to international cricket in 2012 and aggravated after Alastair Cook brought the curtains down on his illustrious Test career. Moreover, England have tried eight players as openers since Cook’s retirement, which sums up their struggle to find an able successor to the legendary opener. 

They have also tried numerous batters at number three, Ollie Pope being the most recent one. Still, they haven’t been able to fill that spot yet, which is disappointing, to say the least. 

Why have England failed to restabilise their top-order despite having a brilliant domestic setup? 

Batters come to know about their technical shortcomings only if they play against quality bowling attacks. But most English County teams possess mediocre local bowlers, who are dealt with ease by the domestic batters. 

The blistering 88-ball-161 by Ben Stokes against Worcestershire can be chosen as a classic example to verify the aforementioned point. Stokes’ outrageous innings signified the mediocrity of Worcestershire’s bowling attack, which was also reverberated by the former England captain Kevin Pietersen. Thus, the lack of good domestic bowlers has accounted for the batters’ unawareness of their technical flaws. 

Apart from this, the pitches in the County championship have been termed as ‘appalling’ by many English cricket pundits, including Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Robert Key. 

Vaughan even argued that established players like Joe Root hesitate to play in the famed domestic competition as it offers them little scope for improvement. Moreover, the pitches are mostly dry and least conducive for fast bowling. These surfaces have been pivotal to leaving the domestic batters underprepared for spicy decks.  

If we dig a bit deeper, we can see that the absence of quality overseas players have also played a part in reducing the championship standard. 

There was a time when almost every County club used to have at least two competent overseas cricketers other than the Kolpak players. While the rest of the world has massively benefited due to the dissolution of Kolpak, it has prevented the English youth from gaining valuable knowledge from some of the best players worldwide.  

The appointment of Brendon McCullum as the coach has instantly brought positive results for the English Test side. As it stands, England’s middle-order seems settled, boosted by Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes. Therefore, the primary job of McCullum as the team’s Test coach would be to stabilise their top order. And if he finds a solution to this problem, probably nothing can stop England from being a formidable Test side again.