Thanks Very Much, Mr Jadeja – Day One at the Ageas Bowl

After being a right royal pain in the bum at Lord’s, Ravi Jadeja finally gave England something to smile about today. He shelled a straightforward chance at slip, gave our beleaguered skipper a second life, and potentially breathed new life into an England team that barely has a pulse these days.

The relief around the Ageas Bowl was palpable. Maybe Cook’s luck was finally turning? He could have been out to the very first ball of the match: he felt for the ball outside off-stump, nicked it in all too familiar fashion, but it dropped short of slip.

After making India’s pedestrian attack look rather more potent than they actually are for an hour or so, Cook finally started to move his feet more convincingly. He even played an off-drive. A rare sight indeed.

As his innings progressed, Cook looked nailed on for a ton. He’s made a career of scoring big runs against modest attacks on slow, true batting surfaces – applying himself and minimising mistakes is easily his best quality as a batsman – but alas, it wasn’t meant to be this time.

The skipper rode his luck early on, but his good fortune finally ran out. How frustrating to fall to a leg-side strangle when a well deserved hundred was in sight. When Cook gets his eye in, he usually goes big. This time there was just big disappointment for a supportive crowd.

Although Cook was the big story of the day, the real star was Gary Ballance. The young Yorkie showed just how easy batting was today. He now has three hundreds in his first six tests, a tremendous effort.

As for India’s bowlers, the least said the better. The accuracy they showed at Lord’s was badly missing.

England actually made a massive mistake by preparing a green top at Lord’s. When pitches assist the seamers, it actually brings the two attacks closer together.

In the dark days of the mid-1990s, England’s consolation wins always occurred at Headingley, where the likes of Neil Mallender proved unplayable. It didn’t matter how fast or skilful bowlers were because the pitch did all the work.

At the Ageas Bowl today, on a flat pitch, India’s attack was exposed for what it really is: one paced and about as threatening as a cat whose claws have been removed. I simply do not understand why Ashwin, their one truly world class bowler, isn’t playing.

Unfortunately, England’s attack isn’t exactly in great shape either these days. Our bowlers are taller and a bit quicker, but it won’t be easy to take twenty wickets on this.

The key is how Broad bowls. When Broady is fully fit, he’s pretty fast and nasty. However, the Broad we’ve seen in this series is a replica of the Broad who played at home against South Africa in 2012: injured and medium pace.

In my opinion Broad should not be playing. His knee condition needs managing. The decision to retain Broad (one imagines he insisted on playing, despite his dubious fitness) while dropping Plunkett and Stokes was extremely weak management from Moores.

India rested Ishant Sharma in this match because he had a slight niggle. It was disappointing for Dhoni that his match-winner was missing (another huge break for Cook!) but India will benefit in the long run.

Meanwhile, England continue to flog their opening bowlers like carthorses – irrespective of fitness, exhaustion, or indeed performances.

At Lord’s it was Anderson and Broad, the new ball bowlers, who blew it for England. How typical that the management responded by dropping the change bowlers instead.