Early exit for Burns after England make big changes

ENGLAND opted to leave out Jack Leach’s spin and pack their batting, with recalls for Jonny Bairstow and Ollie Robinson, for the First Test against India at

Trent Bridge.

Joe Root won the toss and opted to bat on a perfect day. However, they lack a spinner to bowl in the fourth innings, and the pitch has enough green to excite Virat Kohli and his bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah struck immediately, dismissing Rory Burns lbw.

England are missing a raft of big names, with Ben Stokes absent as he manages his mental health, and Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer injured. Ollie Pope joined the injured English ranks yesterday, when he failed to overcome his quad issue in time to play. England, therefore, opted to pick both Bairstow and Dan Lawrence in the middle order.

India produced a spiky selection of their own, leaving out their two most experienced bowlers, Ishant Sharma — who has been struggling with injury — and Ravichandran Ashwin, the off-spinner with 413 Test wickets.

They picked a pair of bowling all-rounders, spinner Ravi Jadeja and seamer Shardul Thakur, alongside three frontline quicks. Kannur Rahul was listed to open, with Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal both injured.

Bairstow was presented with a commemorative cap by Graham Thorpe on the occasion of his 75th Test match. His has been an

eventful Test career, in which he has struggled for recent form and not played a red-ball match since his pair in the Fourth Test in Ahmedabad in March.

Robinson has played just one Test, but that was eventful, too. He put in a terrific performance against New Zealand, picking up seven wickets and scoring a handy 42. On the opening day, a series of offensive historic tweets emerged, which he learned about at stumps.

Robinson was subsequently condemned by the ECB and, following a hearing, suspended for one Test match. He returns at the first opportunity in a four-man seam attack alongside James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Sam Curran.

The fall guy is Leach — again. Root described him as “unfortunate” to miss out. Leach had a fine winter and has an impressive Test record, but England prefer to pack their batting and trust Root to provide a spin option when Stokes is absent. It is a strange approach.

Seldom in recent memory has the build-up to a Test series as grand as this felt quite so muted. There are many contributing factors — the Olympics and Lions are quadrennial sporting events in full flow, and the ECB and its broadcast “partners” have put all their weight behind their shiny new competition, The Hundred.

That, in turn, has meant that this series arrives almost without context. There is no form guide. England’s Test specialists, like Anderson and Broad, have barely hit or bowled a ball in weeks. Oddly, one of the few players to have had a decent first-class run out is Leach, who took seven wickets against Surrey.

England have tried to carefully plan their Test cricket this year and, six months ago, things were going rather well. Root’s runs powered them to three straight victories in Asia, including an historic win at Chennai, before their rest and rotation policy came back to bite them. They lost their next three matches, then 1-0 to New Zealand, who went on to beat India in the World Test Championship final.

England have been bolstered since by the return of Jos Buttler, Sam Curran and Bairstow, but are still missing key players.