Hot Seat: Who could rewrite the story of Headingley 2019?
With eight runs to win, Jack Leach is finally on strike for a full over. Whom do you bowl?
ESPNcricinfo staff
14-Jun-2020
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In this series, Hot Seat, we present our writers with a tricky cricketing scenario and ask them to captain their way out of it.
Scenario
You are captaining Australia in the 2019 Headingley Test. Ben Stokes is doing the improbable. With England on 351, eight runs from the target, you finally have Jack Leach on strike for the first ball of an over. So far, Leach has survived nine balls from James Pattinson, three from Pat Cummins, and one each from Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. You can now select any current bowler (England and Australia bowlers included) to bowl to Leach. Who bowls, and what field do you set?
You are captaining Australia in the 2019 Headingley Test. Ben Stokes is doing the improbable. With England on 351, eight runs from the target, you finally have Jack Leach on strike for the first ball of an over. So far, Leach has survived nine balls from James Pattinson, three from Pat Cummins, and one each from Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. You can now select any current bowler (England and Australia bowlers included) to bowl to Leach. Who bowls, and what field do you set?
Karthik Krishnaswamy: R Ashwin
He's brilliant against left-hand batsmen, and, also, it's hard to think of another bowler who's taken the final wicket in as many Test wins as he has. Ashwin has been involved in 42 India wins, and he's taken the match-sealing wicket in 17 of them. Seventeen.
He's brilliant against left-hand batsmen, and, also, it's hard to think of another bowler who's taken the final wicket in as many Test wins as he has. Ashwin has been involved in 42 India wins, and he's taken the match-sealing wicket in 17 of them. Seventeen.
To Leach, Ashwin will bowl from around the wicket with this 6-3 field: two slips, short extra-cover, backward point, cover point, long-off two-thirds of the way back (with only eight required, I don't want to give Leach the get-out-of-jail shot over mid-off and I don't mind him trying to push for a single to the deep fielder because that would bring his outside edge into play); short leg, mid-on, backward square leg, and a big gap at midwicket to entice the flick that turns into the leading-edge caught-and-bowled that ends Leach's dogged resistance.
Osman Samiuddin: Rashid Khan
What I'd do is what I'm not allowed: I would change the umpires, or not waste a review and keep it instead for when Nathan Lyon does get Stokes out leg-before. A different umpire gives it, or a review confirms it. Seeing as that's not allowed, though, I'd be really tempted by Kagiso Rabada or Jasprit Bumrah: pace and good yorkers are always a great combo. But, ultimately, I want a guy who will bring an element of some surprise. Kuldeep Yadav could be a choice just because Leach is unlikely to have faced that genre of bowling too often, but I want control too. So Rashid Khan, lethal against the tail, very good against lefties, and capable of enough surprise for Leach to not know how to go about it. A quick fizzing slider perhaps would do the trick. As my field, I'd have a slip, a gully, and at least four in front of the bat right in Leach's face.
What I'd do is what I'm not allowed: I would change the umpires, or not waste a review and keep it instead for when Nathan Lyon does get Stokes out leg-before. A different umpire gives it, or a review confirms it. Seeing as that's not allowed, though, I'd be really tempted by Kagiso Rabada or Jasprit Bumrah: pace and good yorkers are always a great combo. But, ultimately, I want a guy who will bring an element of some surprise. Kuldeep Yadav could be a choice just because Leach is unlikely to have faced that genre of bowling too often, but I want control too. So Rashid Khan, lethal against the tail, very good against lefties, and capable of enough surprise for Leach to not know how to go about it. A quick fizzing slider perhaps would do the trick. As my field, I'd have a slip, a gully, and at least four in front of the bat right in Leach's face.
Andrew Miller: Mitchell Starc
The one thing that's clear from Leach's demeanour is that he's not afraid to get his body into line. His limitations as a batsman, in these extraordinary circumstances, are actually turning out to be assets, because he's not going to be bullied by sheer pace, or worn down by attrition, or flash at a wide one and give it away. He's going to have to be dynamited from the crease. So, tempted as I might be to whistle for Yasir Shah, crowd the bat with close catchers, and toss up a big-ripping googly for the "why did he do that?" moment, I don't believe he's going to be suckered that way. We need a purveyor of magic balls. We need the prime Aussie seamer who wasn't picked for this game. Step forward Mitchell Starc, with full licence to unleash that left-arm inswinging yorker. As he proved with that World Cup worldie at Lord's, even Stokes won't have an answer if he gets it utterly pinpoint.
The one thing that's clear from Leach's demeanour is that he's not afraid to get his body into line. His limitations as a batsman, in these extraordinary circumstances, are actually turning out to be assets, because he's not going to be bullied by sheer pace, or worn down by attrition, or flash at a wide one and give it away. He's going to have to be dynamited from the crease. So, tempted as I might be to whistle for Yasir Shah, crowd the bat with close catchers, and toss up a big-ripping googly for the "why did he do that?" moment, I don't believe he's going to be suckered that way. We need a purveyor of magic balls. We need the prime Aussie seamer who wasn't picked for this game. Step forward Mitchell Starc, with full licence to unleash that left-arm inswinging yorker. As he proved with that World Cup worldie at Lord's, even Stokes won't have an answer if he gets it utterly pinpoint.
Sharda Ugra: Kagiso Rabada
The memory of Warnie may lead to a summoning of Ravichandran Ashwin or Moeen Ali or the ghost of Ranganna Herath. But no, this is not Asia, and here there's only one way to take out a tailender. No mercies, no politeness, blast them out. Bowl at the stumps with a thick slip cordon, one man at short mid-off for the nervy prod and another in the short-leg pocket for the awkward fend.
The memory of Warnie may lead to a summoning of Ravichandran Ashwin or Moeen Ali or the ghost of Ranganna Herath. But no, this is not Asia, and here there's only one way to take out a tailender. No mercies, no politeness, blast them out. Bowl at the stumps with a thick slip cordon, one man at short mid-off for the nervy prod and another in the short-leg pocket for the awkward fend.
The bowler? Kagiso Rabada, who has dismissed 38 tailenders (Nos. 9-11) in his career, at a strike-rate of 17.32. Rabada will be fast, he will be furious, and he will be at the stumps, making Leach play. Given that there is another similar bowler available in Mitchell Starc, you may well ask, why not one of your own? Recalling Starc will make us look weak. It goes against Commandment No.1 of the Australian Way: Never take a backward step.
Alan Gardner: Tim Murtagh
With immortality beckoning, the only way to do this is to get between Leach's ears. We need accuracy; we need someone who's not going to waste one of his potential six balls; and we need an experienced operator who can cloud those famous specs with the fog of war. Step forward the bowler who denied Leach on the brink of his (other) finest batting hour, against Ireland in 2019. Murtagh can be relied on to do what Australia failed to at Headingley: make Leach doubt where his off stump is. Stack the slips, add a couple of gullies, short extra cover to stop the tip-and-run, nag away on a length, and let natural selection do the rest. Headingley on day four would surely still offer Murtagh the vital nip, and Leach would remain most famous for his nightwatchman 92 at Lord's.
With immortality beckoning, the only way to do this is to get between Leach's ears. We need accuracy; we need someone who's not going to waste one of his potential six balls; and we need an experienced operator who can cloud those famous specs with the fog of war. Step forward the bowler who denied Leach on the brink of his (other) finest batting hour, against Ireland in 2019. Murtagh can be relied on to do what Australia failed to at Headingley: make Leach doubt where his off stump is. Stack the slips, add a couple of gullies, short extra cover to stop the tip-and-run, nag away on a length, and let natural selection do the rest. Headingley on day four would surely still offer Murtagh the vital nip, and Leach would remain most famous for his nightwatchman 92 at Lord's.