Joe Denly left the tour of New Zealand last winter believing he would never live down a horror dropped catch on the final day in Hamilton but his second innings dismissal in Southampton’s biosecure bubble may be the moment that eats at away him for longer.
As has been the case for a good deal of his Test career, Denly had got himself set. He had adjusted after his demise on the second day – bowled by one that nipped back from Shannon Gabriel – and though his favoured pull shot had been chancy at times given the variable bounce, he was 69 balls into his work and 29 runs to the good.
England had chugged along to 151 for two by the 65th over through Dom Sibley’s tugboat 50 and though he had departed, and a lead of 37 was still slender, with the West Indies attack entering the stage of the match when fatigue might start to become a factor, Denly had his latest chance to build a score of substance.
But then, as has also been the case for much of the 34-year-old’s Test career, he departed and here in particularly soft fashion. He chipped an innocuous delivery on his pads from Roston Chase straight to Jason Holder at short midwicket. Chase, whose seemingly gentle off-breaks ran through England in Barbados last year, brought out his usual telephone celebration and may well have been ordering his latest victim a taxi.
Stuart Broad can attest to there being few certainties when it comes to selection – how he truly feels about being dropped remains one of the great unsolved mysteries – but we already know Joe Root will return in Manchester on Thursday, fresh from a world of nappies and night feeds, and thus a batsman will need changing.
Zak Crawley, looking on from the other end with 24 to his name when Denly fell, said before this Test he is not the type to analyse permutations but admitted it was slightly odd to be vying with the Kent teammate who presented his England cap. Had baby Root arrived sooner, Crawley would have been the player to miss out here, judging by his move from opener down to No 4 to accommodate the returning Rory Burns.
But come 4.30pm Crawley had become the fourth batsman to raise his bat for a half-century in this #raisethebat series and looked in fine touch en route to his eventual 76 from 127 balls before chipping one back to Alzarri Joseph. He evaded the short ball smartly, not always straightforward for a 6ft 5in batsman, and showed a touch of class in attack.
It was said that playing behind closed doors might draw some of the intensity out of the cricket but pressure manifests itself in different ways. Crawley, knowing his proximity to the exit door and with a score of 10 in the first innings, showed the calm temperament that trumped a slightly modest first-class record and earned him his chance.
Ed Smith had been patrolling the ground in typically dapper attire during the afternoon but the low hum in this near-silent arena was chiefly the air-con unit in the pavilion rather than the national selector’s brain ticking over; a potentially tricky choice between youth and experience was being settled in front of his snazzy sunglasses.
Smith has invested heavily in Denly and though much has been made of their Canterbury link the call-up in late 2018 was not without merit. Denly was the PCA’s Player of the Year that summer, as voted for by his peers, and for the fifth time in seven years a Test debut had followed on from this recognition.
And it’s true that Denly, a popular character, has added a degree of solidity to England’s previously flaky top‑order, as Smith insisted upon naming this squad. CricViz tells us only Marnus Labuschagne has soaked up 100 balls-plus in an innings more often since the start of 2019.
This is where the comparison ends, however, given the Australian’s four Test centuries and average of 74 during this time, to the Englishman’s none and 29.5.
If Smith and co are looking to the next Ashes, as the omission of Broad for the pace of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood appears to indicate, then now is the time to invest in the coming man.