There was relief rather than satisfaction etched on the faces of the England coaching staff after the Headingley victory, their first Test win since September last year.
That is partly because they have grown used to the wild fluctuations in England’s Test performances.
In the past three years – a span of 42 matches – England have only once won three Tests in a row. There is always a defeat looming around the corner.
The old saying about Pakistan that you never know which team is going to turn up applies now as much to Joe Root’s side.
Why are England, with more professional players and resources than any other country, so inconsistent and languishing in fifth spot – just above Sri Lanka – in the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings?
If you look at the most successful Test teams of all time – West Indies (1980-1995) and Australia (1995-2004) – their success was founded on outstanding opening pairs, and a combination of penetrative and restrictive bowlers.
West Indies’ Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge are the most prolific opening partnership in Test history (6,482 runs together at an average of 47) followed by Australia’s Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer (5,655 runs, average 51).
They provided a solid foundation on which the rest of the structure could be built.
Since the retirement of Andrew Strauss in 2012, England’s foundations have been decidedly rickety.
Alastair Cook – England’s leading Test run-scorer of all time – has had 12 different opening partners in that time, and none – apart from Root himself, who averaged 41 as an opener – can be considered a success.
Cook’s recent 11-Test opening partnership with Mark Stoneman averaged just 16 runs per outing.
England’s most successful recent periods – 2003-2005 and 2008-2011 – coincided with two of their most reliable opening pairs: Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss (who averaged 52 in partnership) and Strauss and Cook, whose 4,711 runs (at 41 per partnership) is the third all-time highest aggregate behind Greenidge and Haynes and Hayden and Langer.
You cannot underestimate the value of good opening partnerships. It blunts the opposition’s main cutting edge – the new ball – and gives the rest of the batting order breathing space.
Batting is much easier against a ball that is 20 overs old and has lost its initial hardness. But because of England’s shaky opening pairs they are frequently 80-4 and having to rebuild.
Good opening pairs also pave the way for individual hundreds, which give a team vital ballast. England averaged 1.21 hundreds a Test between 2006 and 2010 (when Strauss and Cook opened and England won the Ashes home and away).
In the past three years they have averaged only 0.72 hundreds per Test.
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