England have been backed to fight fire with fire against South Africa's express pace attack this week and fully commit to their aggressive style.
Having come unstuck in bowler friendly conditions on day one and against Anrich Nortje’s extreme pace on day three, the England batters hardly threw a punch in anger at Lord’s. And head coach Brendon McCullum has reflected that his players were not aggressive as they could have been or were during the earlier part of the summer.
McCullum said: "I guess one of the messages we will be talking about is did we go hard enough with our approach? Could we maybe go a little harder and try to turn some pressure back on the opposition?"
High pace can make batters less confident or attacking in their approach, and stats show that the South Africans were the quickest attack on show in England for 16 years with the 2009 Aussies in Leeds, the next sharpest on the speed gun. But McCullum isn’t the only one who thinks England were a little tentative and should have gone harder, another former international keeper batter with attacking instincts agrees.
“The quicker it comes the quicker it can go,” said Matt Prior, who faced down Mitchell Johnson and co. in 2009 and beyond. “And if you enjoy facing pace as we generally did then you can take the attack to the opposition.
“In 2009 Australia had a very quick bowler in a good attack who played well at Headingley and they won that game, but it wasn’t the same relentlessness as their attack in 2013/14 when there was no escape.
“This South Africa attack are a real challenge because at Lord’s they had Rabada and Ngidi bowling well, then Nortje and Jansen followed up and didn’t give England any respite. The solution is to commit 100 percent to your method and go for it.
“You cannot be half baked in your approach otherwise you will come unstuck. I love the fact that Brendon McCullum has come out and said they didn’t go hard enough. I agree because a lot of the dismissals were tentative prods and players caught in two minds.”
More than a third of South Africa’s deliveries were above 87 miles per hour, while New Zealand barely reached that mark across three games. Plus the Dukes ball now appears to be staying harder for longer which allowed the Proteas to enjoy more sideways movement than either the Kiwis or India.
Essentially the task facing England’s batters in this series is the stiffest of the summer, but Prior believes they have the ability to meet it head on and must be allowed the room to fail when it doesn’t go quite right.
“The talent in that dressing room is boundless,” added Prior. “Look at Ollie Pope.
“We have barely scratched the surface of his ability in Test cricket because up until now he has been so worried about getting out he’s not been focused on scoring runs. There is no space for fear of failure in international sport and he is now starting to show he can be the man to score the runs England need.
“Having Ben and Baz in charge is the most exciting move we’ve seen in English cricket for a long time and I really like the positive culture they are building. We are going to see the odd three day Test and some failures along the way, but we are also going to see some incredible cricket.”
