NASSER HUSSAIN: The transformation of Alex Lees under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum has been incredible … his mindset has changed more than anyone else under the new regime
- Alex Lees has been a different player since the change of leadership in England
- He starred at No. 1 on the fourth day against India as the hosts began a record chase
- Lees and Zak Crawley reached the fastest opening stand in England to date
- After poor communication with Joe Root, Lees finally ran out of 56
For Nasser Hussain for the Daily Mail
Posted: 19:22, 4 July 2022 | Updated: 22:32, 4 July 2022
If you had told anyone watching Alex Lees in the Caribbean that he could play like he did on Monday in that fabulous grandstand, you would never have believed it.
Lees ’transformation since the second inning of the first test against New Zealand at Lord’s under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum has been incredible.
The sight of him loading Mohammed Shami the third ball of the second inning here on Monday set the tone for England’s initial pairing and chase. Lees immediately put India’s formidable attack on the back foot. The races flowed after that.
Alex Lees ’transformation under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum has been amazing
Lees celebrates reaching his half-century after helping England begin the persecution with force
Then, when the turn for the ninth over was introduced in the form of Ravindra Jadeja, Lees just hit and crushed the bowler to the limit. He followed that up, in the same reverse, sweeping Jadeja by four, and he’s not an easy bowler to hit.
It was an approach that silenced the Indian fans in the crowd, made the players change length and made the ball move faster. He was never reckless or headless.
This is how, by all accounts, Lees played in his early years in Yorkshire, when Jason Gillespie gave him the nickname ‘Haydos’ because it reminded him of Matthew Hayden.
Maybe this was why Stokes found an unusual amount of space for his snappy footwork.
Players should be thinking, “If our skipper is running across the field, so am I.”
Ben Stokes is leading by example and encouraging the rest of the team to baptize without fear
What a shame for England who ended up like they did with Lees with that confusion after tea with Joe Root because that was the template for how he should play in the future.
More than anyone, his mindset has completely changed the new direction.
This was an encouraging entry for Zak Crawley as well. It is clear that he has made small technical changes in this reordered final test. It is a little higher in the fold, has its weight later and the hind leg a little less bent.
But for me the biggest change has been in Crawley’s mindset. It is this great boom at the beginning of his innings that has put him in trouble because, opening to England, is a low percentage shot. Crawley was given more opportunity here.
Eventually, Lees ran out of 56 after tea after poor communication with Joe Root
It was also an encouraging entry for Zak Crawley, who reached 46 before being thrown into bowling.
He has so much talent that he should never have given it away so often, but here he left the ball very well, at least until he left one that was too straight and threw it, and that meant the players had to ‘approach him and feed him. forces off the bearings.
India was forced to put the ball where Crawley wanted it until, when it got a little softer, they had to go to their fourth pitcher Shardul Thakur. Then Crawley was able to pull off this cover unit which is a strength as well as an early weakness. He can and should play the shot, but not so soon with the Dukes ball in motion.
That loss he made for Crawley eventually came to an end after changing the ball, which has been a feature of this summer of testing and something I disagree with.
I don’t say that because this time it was against England. The same thing happened on the third day, when England got a tougher spare and suddenly there was uneven movement and rebounding.
Crawley and Lees celebrate their opening stand of the century, the fastest ever made for England in a test
Clearly there is a problem with this year’s batch of balls. Yes, they are softening and yes they are losing shape, but that is part of cricket and they are changing too often.
The problem is finding a replacement that has had the same amount of use because you just don’t know what the “new” ball will do.
The only reason teams want them to constantly change this season is not because they have lost shape, but because they don’t offer any movement.
The laws say that balls can only be changed at the discretion of the referee and it is not simply a matter of whether they can pass through the hoops. But they are not exercising that discretion.
I saw one of the balls that had been changed in early summer and it wasn’t bad at all.
Yes, the balls warp, especially if they crashed against the tables in the same way that Lees and Crawley hit them on Monday, so unless the ball is so bad it looks like a dog’s dinner, the players of bowling should be forced forward with this.