West Indies vs England: Pressure grows on Alastair Cook as England top order struggle

England finish the day 116 for 3

(Getty Images)

From now on, this tour will be almost exclusively about Alastair Cook. He was the focus of unremitting attention throughout last summer, and last night he ensured that the microscope will be going nowhere by failing for the second time in the first Test against West Indies here.

It was not so much that Cook was out for 13, following his 11 in the first innings, it was that he pushed so needlessly at a ball outside off stump, a ball that he could and should have left. The leave is perhaps the most important shot, or non-shot, in an opening batsman’s armoury at the start and Cook appears again to have lost his ability to employ it. He cannot leave alone well, so to speak.

Cook’s dismissal to Jerome Taylor, who produced some searing deliveries in an inspired opening spell at the start of England’s second innings, left his side teetering at 20 for 2. They needed every one of the 104 runs they led by on first innings.

Jermaine Blackwood scored his maiden Test century (Getty Images)

A position from which England must have rather fancied that they could take a lead in the series was swiftly being undermined. Cook’s latest setback was accompanied by another for his new opening partner, Jonathan Trott, who avoided a pair on his return to Test cricket but nothing else. When Ian Bell, misjudging a single that was not there, was run out for 11, England were 52 for 3, only 156 ahead.

The ball which accounted for Trott, a fast, late away swinger, would have done for many other opening batsmen but Trott is not, in truth, an opening batsman and he was also moving as the ball was delivered, which invites disaster. If he escapes minute examination for now, it is only because Cook is taking up all the room in the cricket laboratory reserved for such matters.

Towards the end of last season, three wins and three fifties eased Cook’s burden without removing it. He has gone 33 Test innings (61 in all internationals) without scoring a hundred for England.

Each new lapse merely increases the expectation and the requirements the next time he goes out to bat, which will be in Grenada next week. It would help a little if England could win here but it would not be a conclusive answer to his critics, who will presently be gathering round that microscope again, disassembling his technique and his form’s impact on his captaincy.

As for poor Trott, his recall after recovering from a stress-related condition which forced him to bail out of an Ashes tour, has not worked at the first time of asking. Twice the victim of superb bowling, he has to repay the selectors’ faith quickly now. But last night he looked agitated at the crease. It is unthinkable that there could be two openings for openers.

England had to work hard for their advantage early on the third day of a match which was, to say the least, a slow burner. Jermaine Blackwood, a 23-year-old Jamaican, scored a maiden hundred in his sixth Test but West Indies were content to chug along at under three runs an over, England probably happy to let them do so, intending to bore the pants off them so that mistakes might be made.

That they eked out a significant lead was down to their resolve, the knowledge that this is what the series would entail, and James Tredwell. In many ways, Tredwell embodies the parlous state of English spin bowling. In others, quite as important, he epitomises the significance of a quiet, skilled tradesman going about his business.

For most of last summer, Tredwell was unwanted by Kent in the Championship Second Division and bizarrely was farmed out to Sussex in the first so he could have a game. He was largely responsible yesterday for propelling England to their strong, if not unassailable position.

It was as well his intervention was so telling because it gave the tourists the cushion of a lead. There is nothing fancy about Tredwell, from the prematurely balding head to the unfussy action. He does not turn the ball much but has smart changes of pace and line. He is perhaps fortunate to be playing for England – and next week he may not be when Moeen Ali flies in to join the squad – but he has never let England down.

It is hardly his fault that he is among the best of his breed in an era when the breed itself is in danger of extinction. But it is still some transformation from loan player to Test spinner in less than a year.

Tredwell played his only previous Test in Bangladesh five years ago, took six wickets and was packed off back to the shires, summoned only for occasional one-day assignments. He would not have played here had Adil Rashid not made such a hash of his audition in the warm-up match or had Moeen made the trip in the first place.

Now Moeen is fit again. Only if England want two spinners is Tredwell likely to be retained. They may see it as their best chance of taking 20 wickets in a match if the pitches continue to be quite as unhelpful.

Tredwell’s 4 for 47 were his best figures in Tests, beating the 4 for 82 he took in his only other match, in Dhaka in 2010. His key victim was Shiv Chanderpaul. Just when it looked as if England would need an excavator and a gang of labourers to remove him from the crease, Chanderpaul fell into a trap.

Cook had packed the offside field and Chanderpaul obliged by driving to cover, not quite getting to the pitch. Denesh Ramdin gloved a leg-stump bouncer from Stuart Broad before Tredwell had Jason Holder driving to cover and Kemar Roach edging a straight, flatter one.

This rather rained on Jimmy Anderson’s parade. Anderson, in his 100th Test, was left two short of overtaking Sir Ian Botham’s record 383 Test wickets for England. He may need them and some more in West Indies’ second innings for England to prevail.