Lost by an innings to what is a very good South African side - especially their bowling. They've got genuine pace in Nortje and one of the world's best in Rabada. On top of a couple of other solid bowlers. They're decent with the bat and South Africa always field well. Whereas we're very much in transition where our best players have probably already had their best days and those coming into the side just aren't quite up to scratch. Even though we won the series against New Zealand, we didn't play that well as a team. It was really down to the individual brilliance of Root and Bairstow.
I don't want us to go back to the 90s where two bad Tests on the spin saw you out the side only to be brought back in in a couple of weeks time because your replacement has had his two best Tests. But at the same time, I don't want us to become too loyal to people who constantly fail. I know we've struggled to find a decent pair to open the innings ever since Strauss called it a day but now that Cook has gone as well, we look very poor at the top of the order. Crawley just isn't it cutting it, Lees looks solid at times but doesn't make the big scores, Pope has something about him as everyone says but is still very inconsistent especially as a number 3 and then Root comes in and we're already two or three down for not even a hundred runs. And as good as Rooty is, he can't always bail us out of the sh*t.
The skipper has hit one century in two years, which isn't enough especially if he wants to use himself as a specialised batsmen rather than the all-rounder - though he did bowl a fair bit in this Test to be fair. Foakes may be our best keeper but his lack of runs, will have people questioning whether a great gloveman is worth more than a great batsman who can also keep wicket to an acceptable level. When you've got Bairstow, Buttler and Billings all capable of taking the gloves then Foakes will be under pressure.
And then we've got Broad coming in at eight, which just makes our tail too long. I know he's got a Test match century to his name and the other three (Potts, Leach, Anderson) can all do a job and hang around a while but we really do miss a bowling all-rounder like Woakes.
The whole "bazball" style of play is difficult to criticise because when it works like the New Zealand series, it's the greatest thing we've ever seen. But when it falls on it's arse like it did in this Test then it looks very silly. I wouldn't blame the tactics too much for the result though because I just think South Africa are, right now, a better side than we are. As I would of said New Zealand were but they let us off the hook a lot of the time.
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