The see-saw of hope and despair

When I last updated my blog, after the first test of the series, things didn't look too bad for England. Sure, depending on your viewpoint they might have squandered their chance to take a series lead, but they had certainly gone a way to dispel the gloom that followed the series draw in Bangladesh. Since then, whilst I was laid to waste by flu, England were also laid to waste by India's batsmen and bowlers. With India now 2-0 up with two to go, the series practically in the bag, there's a lot less to be happy about.

But still I go 'looking for the positives', that cliché that so often follows a disappointing performance. And England's performance has been disappointing, no doubt about it. There's a batting lineup, that for all its obvious talent, continues to fold too easily. Six different players had passed fifty at some point in the series before today, yet still England have found themselves in positions such as 80/5, 87/4, and 78/5. In Mohali, they had a great chance to post a big score batting first, but so often threw their wickets away in making 283. Then there are the Indian batsmen, classy players such as Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara in particular, teaching England a lesson. For a long time in the second test, only a dog on the outfield was able to stop them batting. And if they get past them, there's always Ravi Ashwin, nearly as much of a danger with the bat as he is when coming in to bowl at England's many left handers.

Maybe there aren't that many positives then. Maybe I'm clutching at straws. I can't see anything other than an Indian series win, after all. Maybe it's a just fit of excitement from seeing a player like Haseeb Hameed come into the side at 19 and look the part straight away. After scores of 31 and 82 during an impressive debut, in his next two games he continued to look the real deal. A score of 25 might not seem that much on a scorecard, but in the second innings at Visag he occupied the crease for over three hours, 144 balls, 50.2 overs to make those 25 runs. Maybe it wasn't a thrilling and buccaneering innings, but it was absorbing in its own way and the sort England needed in that situation. In Mohali, a badly broken finger wasn't enough to stop him, bravely battling for 59* at number eight and doing all he could to keep England in the game. If the game is about character and temperment, he's got it in spades. And of course when you finally find an opener, two come along at once. Keaton Jennings made his debut in replacing Hameed for the fourth test, and made a century on the very first day. After the amount of openers that have flattered to deceive, I'm wary of declaring anyone as England's savior. But for now at least there's a lot to celebrate with these two.

And others are improving as well. Stokes and Bairstow are ever-improving against the spinners, and continue to be a strong partnership when they often have the chance to bat together. Stokes in particular has added that extra layer to his game, an extra patience for that hard graft when facing the spinners. Maybe there's the odd rush of blood to the head, but he won't give up easily; and he relishes having a big role with bat and ball. Adil Rashid, also, might be getting better with every match. The four ball might still be just round the corner, but more frequently the wickets are too. England's spin consultant, Saqlain Mushtaq, joining the tour has had its effect - but you can't only credit the coach, the bowler has done the work too. He appears to have won the trust of his captain now, which might be half the battle. He will always provide that mix of frustration alongside his element of mystery and genuine wicket taking threat. But with 18 wickets in the series so far, leading England's list by a distance, things are looking up.

Yet, it's still hard to plaster over the team's obvious flaws. They have been beaten twice, and you can't argue against that. I will freely admit that my optimism is, indeed, hopeless. Today they might find themselves in a decent position at 288/5, you can't run away from the fact that they are 2-0 and don't really know their best eleven or the order it should go in. They've tried three spinners, but the third option has never been good enough, so now they're back down to two on a pitch already deteriorating (though I would still say the 4/2 seam/spin should suit England more). With no warm-up games before or in-between, there's no coming back now for dropped batsmen like Ballance or Duckett, Buttler in the team as a specialist number seven. The call-up of Liam Dawson for the injured Zafar Ansari perhaps shows the muddled thinking of the selectors - not knowing if they needed a specialist batsman or a specialist spinner, so going somewhere between the two. If he does play, it must surely be as a batting option first - but where exactly does he fit? Consistency also remains an issue. Batsmen might deliver separately or in pairs but not often as a whole group, and not often for a run of matches in a row. The talent is there, so what's missing? Fatigue from a long year might be a part, but what else?

Instead, I'll flip back one more time and just be happy about today's play. They lost a few wickets foolishly, but all in all it was a solid day of cricket. It's always lovely to see a young player come into the team and make an impact straight away, and Jennings certainly made his presence felt. 288/5 is a position England can work with and build upon, and though Stokes and Buttler will have to fight hard to make their runs as the pitch turns and turns, the promise is there for a score of 350 plus or more if they're lucky. When the ball turns, it's good to have those runs on the board - it's something to work with. Maybe my hope hasn't quite died yet.

The clouds lift

Coming away from Bangladesh, it was difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel for England. They had collapsed within a session, confidence was shattered, and with the tour of India starting the next week it was easy to predict a 5-0 outcome. Defeats can be contagious after all, and it can be difficult to find a way out of a rut. But in Rajkot they broke down that wall and came bursting out of the other side.

It started by winning the toss, and batting. And then, how they batted. There was no 21/3, 62/5, 69/5, the positions that put England at a disadvantage when playing Bangladesh (though when they did have a good start, things didn't go so well either). England needed one of their leading batsmen to step up, and Joe Root was up to the challenge. A stand of 179 with Moeen Ali put them in a strong position, and things just got better from there. Root's 124 was that sort of tone-setting innings that he so often delivers in the first match of the series, and also the first by a visiting batsman in India since early 2013. And it wouldn't be the only one. His partner in that key stand, Moeen Ali, made 117; whilst Ben Stokes added a further 128 as England capitalised on a strong position. Little over a week earlier it was hard to look beyond the despair of collapsing in a session; but now England had posted 537 and had three centurions in a single innings.

But India settled in too, and the struggle for wickets would be a long one. The partnership between Root and Moeen was more than matched when Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara put on 209 for the second wicket, the pair both making centuries of their own. England had made an imposing total, but India came close to matching it, and batting for 162 overs in their total of 488. A sign of things to come, perhaps? India's batsmen will be hard to break down, yet it wasn't always easy for them to score against England either; a true test for both sides. Eventually though, the wickets did fall - eight going down to the spinners, and four of those to Adil Rashid with his best performance yet in the test arena. 70 from Ravi Ashwin helped India to 488, just 49 runs behind. A draw looked the most likely result, but there was just enough reason for both sides to think they might have an outside chance with four sessions to go.

On that fourth evening, England did all they could to extinguish India's hopes of a win. And that was down to two men, Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed - his latest opening partner, and his youngest one yet. And yes, he is just nineteen, but he certainly looked the part. A case of 'if you're good enough, you're old enough' if ever there was one. His 31 in the first innings had already been enough to get people excited, but a second innings 82 did it even more. His temperament was what impressed the most, always looking assured and unflustered, not hurried or nervous. There was even a six, hit straight back over the bowler's head; already looking more than just the 'Baby Boycott'. There will be the risk of too much pressure being put on him too young, of him being hailed by a savior before he even reaches twenty. He cannot be called the solution after just one test. But maybe he's the most exciting answer we've had so far.

For Alastair Cook, it was his 55th test as captain - the most by any Englishman. He celebrated with his 30th test century, and England's fourth of the match. Conservatism is a word often used when describing his captaincy, and maybe this was another case in point, the opening pair scoring slower in the morning than they had the night before, despite having ten wickets in hand and a chance to set a target. Maybe they could have scored faster - when Stokes came in at four, he scored at a run a ball - and maybe he could have declared earlier. But sometimes these things are easier said than done, better in theory than in practice. Even with a pitch that didn't seem to have any major demons, free scoring hadn't always been all that straightforward; and it hadn't been all that simple for the bowlers first time out either. A lower total might have tempted India and brought more chance of a result; but it was a risk England would always be unlikely to take in the first match of a five game series. I agree that with declarations Cook could generally take more risks, but this time out I'd give him the benefit of the doubt.

As it turned out, England did manage six wickets, but the resistance of the captain Virat Kohli (49*) alongside Ashwin (32) and Jadeja (32*) saw India to safety. England's spinners were in the wickets again, with three more falling for Adil Rashid. Their performance will have been encouraging for England, and though none are the finished article, the signs are there that they are learning on the job as the long tour of the subcontinent continues. Rashid will still veer between periods where he frustrates and ones where he produces gold, but he showed that the gold is worth waiting for. The more the spinners bowl, the better they will get. I can be as guilty as any in wanting the instant result, but it's a waiting game. And here it was paying off.

What can England expect in the rest of the series? The pitches are likely to be better suited to India, offering more for the spinners than in Rajkot. But England will be boosted too as their talisman returns in James Anderson, a key figure in that famous 2012 victory. It's a hard call to see who he will replace, be it a pace bowler in Woakes or Broad or the spin of Zafar Ansari (though a 3/3 seam/spin mix might look a better option). Importantly, in Rajkot England showed they are no pushovers, and will provide a contest for India. The doom and gloom has lifted. Keep up the good work and there will be a contest.

On records, Hales, and Hameed

Not long ago, after Jason Roy scored 162 in an ODI against Sri Lanka, I wrote that it was only a matter of time before Robin Smith's 23-year-old record for England's highest individual ODI score would be broken. In this series against Pakistan, it happened - by Roy's opening partner, Alex Hales.

Gone were those struggles of the test series, with Hales the test batsman replaced by Hales the ODI batsman, those different characters he often seems to play. The man who had already scored three ODI centuries in the last twelve months added another, and his greatest score yet: 171, that record of Robin Smith's finally falling. And not the last record to fall in the day. England surpassed their own  highest ODI score, then it was the world's best - 444/3. Buttler (90*), Root (85), and Morgan (57*) were all involved as well. And even Pakistan got their own record too, Mohammad Amir (58) hitting the highest score by a number eleven batsmen - sadly, all futile by that stage. On went England to a 4-1 series victory, and despite defeat in the Twenty20 that followed, they showed again how they have developed into a serious force in the shortened formats.

But international cricket moves on as quickly as it ever does, and even ODI heroics would have been unlikely to save Hales for the fast approaching test series in Bangladesh. In any case, Hales will not be joining the England squads for the tour, choosing alongside the captain Eoin Morgan to sit out the tour through security fears. It's a decision that for both has brought much scrutiny and often criticism. But such a harsh fare as both, and especially Morgan, have faced feels rather unjust. Assurances have been made, but the ultimate decision was always to be given to the players themselves, with a promise of no consequences. So for the decision to then be called 'disappointing' by the ECB, and then lambasted from many quarters as well, all seems a bit unfair. Sure, I might have liked to see them tour, but it was given as a personal decision for the players and their families, and so it should be left as such.

Lancashire's Haseeb Hameed currently looks like the latest man set to be given the job as Alastair Cook's partner at the top of the order. At least, he is the man currently being 'floated' as the likely option - a recent trend by the selectors to see how the player reacts to an increased spotlight, one that didn't work out well for Scott Borthwick earlier in the summer. Of course, Hameed cannot be mentioned without reference to both his achievements, and his age. Just nineteen years old, so far this season he has scored 1129 runs at 51.31 with four centuries and seven fifties. But the flipside is that - he is just nineteen. Will it be too much, too soon?

The argument has always been there - if you're good enough, you're old enough. The evidence has suggested Hameed is good enough, and certainly he has a huge future in the game. He's something of a throwback in this current age, more traditional in approach than is typical of the Twenty20 generation. It's an approach and mentality not dissimilar from Cook's, and one suited to the test match arena. And, by all accounts, he is a natural. Though touring the subcontinent can be a daunting start to a test career, it is a place where openers can prosper, and is often the best time in the innings to bat. Indeed, Cook made his debut in India aged only 21 - and we know what happened there. Joe Root as well, though not opening, made his mark straight away at a young age. They were good enough, so they were old enough.

If they do choose Hameed, they need to stick with him. He can be a big hit, but there will be bad days too. Some things can be learnt only from experience. It is an investment for the future as much as the present, and so the ups and downs must both be accepted. England need their opening batsman to still be their opening batsman when they visit Australia in just over a year's time. This is the chance to blood the new man, give them that experience, and not just be starting fresh with the pressures of an Ashes tour. But to focus on the present, this is the perfect chance for a new man to make his mark.