Improving England still stuck on opening question

There is always something slightly odd and unsatisfying about English cricketing winters that rather than encompassing Christmas and New Year are divided by them. Perhaps they should be called Autumn and Winter tours. They feel disparate, unconnected entities. By mid-January memories of the pre-Christmas series seem as distant as the last mince pie, at least that is how it feels as a watcher. One would imagine the players see it quite differently. Christmas at home is a rare and precious gift for an established England Test cricketer; it is a chance to exit the bubble, to relax with family and friends, and maybe to reflect on the year's successes and failures, or often just to try and forget.

I doubt though that a Test series in the sub-continent has ever been the subject of a New Year's toast (usually more the drowning of sorrows), but even accounting for Sri Lanka's historic weakness, the 3-0 whitewash was a genuine cause for celebration, a triumph, particularly in the Root household. The England captain at last appears to have taken command of his ship, one with an increasingly impressive armoury. His side now has seven wins in nine test matches and only one defeat in the last eight.

Above all it was the clarity of purpose displayed in Sri Lanka that impressed the most, exemplified by a simple plan of controlled (mostly) aggression and personnel capable, and indeed ideally suited, to carrying it out ruthlessly. It is one of the marks of a successful team, no matter what sport, that each player knows his role and is comfortable with the responsibility it brings.  The question remains can Root (and Bayliss, for praise should be shared when things go right just as should criticism when they go wrong) construct similarly effective plans for the greater challenges that lie ahead. The Caribbean, marks the next challenge, against another struggling side and on what are expected to be similarly slow and low pitches. It ought to be a straightforward assignment for a team aiming to be the best in the world and possessing one of the great new ball partnerships, a bevy of impressive all-rounders, three international class wicketkeepers and and one world class batsman. There is however, one critical area in which it currently falls way short of the mark - the opening partnership. 

Of the present incumbents let's look first at Keaton Jennings. What did we know about him before the Sri Lanka series? That he had character, grit, determination and that he was a pretty good player of spin bowling with a clear game plan that had already proved effective in Test cricket on the sub-continent. And what do know now? That he is a very good player of spin bowling, with a game plan that continues to be effective on the sub-continent. The questions about Jennings are all about his technique against seam bowling. This series did nothing to assuage those concerns, indeed it actually reinforced them.

Dawid Malan was dropped last summer, following a successful Ashes winter, with Smith observing that his technique may be better suited to overseas conditions. In Malan's case Smith was referring to the bouncier pitches of Australia and South Africa, but couldn't the exact same analysis be used for Jennings only for the opposite conditions?  Currently I would say the chances of him starting the Ashes series are no more than 60%, with the likelihood of him being there at the end considerably lower. Reknowned for his toughness he will itching to silence such doubts. Runs against a more than useful West Indian seam attack of Gabriel, Roach and Holder, Duke's ball in hand, would be a good start.

Rory Burns may be slightly securer in his position. Sri Lanka was hardly a personal triumph but he did apparently sail through the 'right stuff ' test of which so much store now seems put, assimilating himself into the squad as seamlessly as a 20-over old Kookaburra. But having convinced Ed Smith to overlook his slightly idiosyncratic technique and to focus on his runs instead, he now needs to deliver. 1319 runs in 13 Championship cricket last year, nearly 400 more than his nearest rival, is solid money in the bank but first-class runs are like a new car, they look great in the showroom but plunge in value the moment they hit the road.  He needs a Test score and soon.

The matter becomes even more crucial when one looks at the batting to come. Joe Root was reluctant to continue in the number 3 spot, not because he feared the occasions when he would be out there at 11.01 rather than 110-1 but because the former case had become the rule rather than the exception. The latest sacrificial lamb, Jonny Bairstow, is far less well equipped than Root to deal with the former but even better suited to capitalise on the latter. With a succession of strokemakers packing the middle/lower order, a solid opening partnership would be transformational to this side.

Opportunities aplenty then, with significant rewards too. There is, however, one possible scenario which concerns me: that the West Indies turn in a string of performances as insipid as Sri Lanka's and England coast to victory on the back of their new found cohesiveness and strength in depth, but without answering the opening question. With no more Test cricket until July and with just the 4-day match against Ireland before the Ashes, it is not a problem that can wait to be fixed. Just another reason to pray for a West Indian resurgence.
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