James Anderson admits that England fell short of the standards they set for themselves, as doubts about the consistency of the Test team surfaced again
Alan Gardner at Headingley26-Aug-2017England went into the second Investec Test hoping to confirm they had shaken off the up-and-down form that has held them back over the last couple of years. After two days at Headingley, however, it was clear that their capacity for inconsistency had struck again, with James Anderson admitting that the players had not lived up to “the standard we set ourselves”.On the back of resilient hundreds from Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope, West Indies had built a 71-run lead over England by the close, with five wickets still in hand. Not only do England have plenty of work to do if they are to turn this match around, their ongoing fragility is becoming a cause for concern as the winter’s Ashes commitments in Australia edge closer.”As a team we know we have got to play a lot better than we have over the first two days. This is not the standard we set ourselves,” Anderson said. “From this Test team’s point of view, we have created a lot of good things over the last few months, played some really good cricket and I don’t think this last couple of days is a fair reflection of where we are.”I thought we had started to resolve that [problem], with the two wins against South Africa and then winning the first Test here. We are still evolving as a side, trying to improve and ironing out those inconsistencies is a really big thing for this team going forward.”Obviously, we have got a big tour of Australia coming up in the winter, and we really need to turn things round. We can’t go over there, be inconsistent, and expect to win a series – or any series, to be honest.”The partnership between Brathwaite and Hope was the most substantial against England this summer and it gave Joe Root plenty to ponder in his sixth Test as captain – and first on his home ground. Headingley twice rose to give generous applause to the West Indies centurions but there was less to be happy about from an England perspective, certainly after a morning session in which Anderson gave the opposition a thorough frisking under cloudy skies.Ben Stokes endured a frustrating morning•Getty ImagesAnderson’s initial burst of 6-3-5-2 was identical to his foray on Friday evening, other than it yielded an extra wicket. But while Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes saw edges fall short of the cordon and Brathwaite twice overturned lbw decisions given on the field – against Broad and Moeen Ali – the fourth-wicket pair refused to buckle.While Anderson praised Brathwaite and Hope for their application – something he said England could learn from in their second innings – he was clear that the bowlers had not been up to the mark as conditions for batting eased.”It was really helpful conditions this morning, cloud cover and the floodlights on,” he said. “But when the sun came out, the pitch seemed a lot slower, it seemed easier to bat and didn’t do as much, and they batted very well. We didn’t bowl very well.”We didn’t bowl enough balls in the right area. You have still got to create pressure even if you are bowling on a pitch with life in it, and we didn’t do it often enough.”We talk a lot about bowling in partnerships and we didn’t do that as well as we could have done. There was always a release. If someone was bowling well from one end there was always a release at the other end. We bowled quite a lot of bad balls and that’s something we don’t usually do.”They played the conditions very well, got through the tough period and as the day went on they cashed in. Our batsmen could have learned from the way they applied themselves.”Having plugged away with a fairly orthodox seam attack during the morning, Root tinkered with his options as the day wore on. Ben Stokes went on a short-ball offensive during an energetic spell of eight overs from the Kirkstall Lane End, with a leg slip and two men back, during which he hit Hope on the helmet; Anderson made a rare switch to round the wicket against the right-handed Brathwaite, to no avail.During the afternoon session, while England experimented with a leg-side trap for Hope, he edged Broad through a gap in the slips. Root had been standing at silly mid-on but shuffled back into the cordon a few balls later.Getting funky in the field had not worked and there was perhaps a lingering question over selection, too. Before the Test, England couched the decision to bring Woakes back ahead of Toby Roland-Jones as one of picking their strongest XI. On the form he was in – and bearing in mind Woakes has only played one other first-class game in 2017, due to injury and his involvement at the IPL – Roland-Jones may have felt he had valid reason to quibble. While Woakes began well, finding swing and beating the bat regularly, he appeared to be down on pace: his average speed fell below even Anderson’s over the course of the day.After several stellar performances with the ball this summer, Moeen was not quite as effective in a holding role. He only bowled four overs out of the first 52, despite almost taking a wicket with his fourth ball and seeing Hope edge on the bounce to slip with the last delivery before lunch. When Hope turned a sharp chance to short leg on 72, the ball hit Mark Stoneman on the body and went to ground.Root was not tempted to bowl himself, though Tom Westley’s offbreaks were given their first airing in Tests; in keeping with England’s day, when he did find the outside edge of Hope’s bat, it again fell short of slip.There were also shortcomings with their application of the DRS, as three hopeful reviews were knocked back, but if it appeared that England’s bad juju at Headingley – they have lost four of their last seven Tests on the ground – may be about to manifest itself again, Anderson was not about to concede matters. He suggested that if they could keep West Indies’ first-innings advantage below 150, England would still be in the game.”We have played many games in which we have had a first-innings deficit and turned things round,” he said. “Obviously, we don’t want to be in this position but we have the character, we know we have to bat a lot better in the second innings, and there is still a lot of work to do in the morning.”Anything over 150 would be a tough ask to try to turn it around, and give ourselves something to bowl at in the second innings. So restricting them to anything under that and we are still in the game.”England’s mounting frustrations after their initial success had been evident early on, when Broad turned and scuffed the turf after changing to the Football Stand End only to see his first ball cut for four by Brathwaite. Although he eventually removed the opener with the second new ball, the sight of Jermaine Blackwood slapping a Moeen half-tracker to the rope to signal the close pretty much summed up England’s day in the dirt.