NICK HOWSON: The tourists' batting line-up have contrasting fortunes at the crease while Ben Stokes reaches another milestone - but at a cost
Play had not yet begun when arguably the biggest blow of the day was struck at The Ageas Bowl.
Stuart Broad fronted up to Sky Sports - the access to England players has been superb during this crisis - about his omission from the team for this first Test and pulled few punches.
"To say I am disappointed would be an understatement," the Nottinghamshire seamer said. "I've been frustrated, angry, gutted because it is a hard decision to understand."
It is important to note that Broad will not have gone totally off-script here. He has already met with captain Ben Stokes and national selector Ed Smith, and will likely have repeated most of the sentiments from that meeting. His comments won't come as much surprise.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the interview with Ian Ward was the idea that England's team selection was at odds with the 13-man squad picked for the match.
"I spoke with Ed Smith last night and he said he's involved in picking the 13 and they picked purely for this pitch," he added.
"I wanted clarifications on the future going forward and I was given pretty positive feedback in going forward."
We exist in a world where sportspeople across the world are more media-trained than ever. Social media might provide lapses, but on the whole conversations directly from the media are sterile and predictable.
Thirty-four-year-old Broad was honest and fair regarding his treatment. He did not delve into hyperbolic language nor fire off expletives. Everything he said contained supportive evidence and his arguments were well constructed.
Public figures are too often criticised for speaking their mind, and then slammed when they toe the party line. They can seemingly never get the balance right to please everyone.
But Broad has earned more respect by being forthright and genuine. We can only hope that more of his sporting peers were taking note.
England and West Indies take knee before start of first Test
Since making history with centuries in both innings of the Test win over England at Headingley - the first man to do so in the ground's history - Shai Hope has developed into one of the finest players on the planet.
He averages 55.52, with eight centuries for West Indies. In 2019, he was named in the ICC team of the year alongside Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, Kane Williamson and Ben Stokes. That is the kind of company he now keeps.
The problem is Hope's success has been more or less exclusively reserved for the 50-over format. Since those heroics in Leeds three years ago, a promising young cricketer has struggled during what should be the core years of his Test career.
Numerically, it has been a sorry tale for Hope. He averages just 25.23 in 20 Tests over the last three years, with no three-figure scores and four 50s. In fact, he hasn't gone to a half-century against an opponent other than England in 24 months.
England played the Barbadian perfectly on day three at The Ageas Bowl - though even they can't take credit for giving him a second life when Jofra Archer overstepped.
With pace on the ball proving ineffective, the hosts starved the Windies batsmen of runs and in this era where players love to feel bat on ball, Hope couldn't resist. Just one run had come from his last 13 deliveries before he threw his hands at one which Dom Bess got to spin away and Stokes' bucket hands gobbled it up.
The tourists are without Darren Bravo and Shimron Hetmyer on this tour after they opted against travelling to England amid the coronavirus pandemic. There isn't a great deal of pressure on Hope's position at No.3 but in a series which will rest on both side's performance with the bat, West Indies can ill-afford to allow one of their line-up to coast. Even if it is the hero of Headingley.
Jofra Archer took a good low catch to dismiss Jason Holder
Backing the man in possession may not have been a policy which completely dictated England's selection policy for this Test but there is little doubt Dom Bess deserved to come into this series as the No.1 spinner.
Illness has seen Jack Leach go from cult hero to having a supporting role. He was included on the nine-man reserve list, but the Somerset man could quite easily have been overlooked altogether this summer, had it not been for Matt Parkinson's limited-overs proficiency which sees him moved to the white-ball bubble.
His Taunton teammate was superb on his last Test outing at Port Elizabeth, where he took five wickets as England turned the series on his head. Bess dismissed five of the top six and while he will freely admit he could have happily rolled up that St George's Park pitch and taken it around the world with him, it was a superb performance.
Bess' much talked about future has become the present. This is an individual who performs with intelligence and skill in equal measure and at times on day three, he ploughed a lone furrow with the ball.
The delivery to get Shai Hope came at the end of some probing bowling. Bess enticed him into a shot he didn't want to play. But that is the class of Bess: he is starting to toy with the body and the mind of his opponents.
To a degree, there was something similar about his second wicket of the day. Jermaine Blackwood was intent on hitting the leather off the ball, and Bess threw one up for him to smack. James Anderson did the rest at mid-off.
The leveller came just before tea and the new ball. Shane Dowrich, on 25, came down the pitch to Bess, who spilt a catch at the other end of the strip. It was a tough chance, but it was a reminder of this unforgiving format. Rest on your laurels for a second and the sport will eventually bite you.
.jpg)
When Shane Dowrich smashed the ball just past mid-off for the fourth boundary of his innings, you could almost sense the relief. In swatting away Dom Bess to reach 24 from 28 deliveries he had matched his cumulative score from his last visit to England, from six innings.
While Shai Hope is desperately trying to recapture the form from his last visit to these shores, Dowrich will have arrived at the biosecure Ageas Bowl hoping to forget them. The wicket-keeper had a horrid series with the bat, returning 4, 5, 0, 0*, 1, 14 from Edgbaston to Lord's, via Headingley.
This innings was not about redemption - he arguably got that in Bridgetown last year - but keeping the pressure on England when they were down. The manner in which he dismissed the old ball, and nullified the old was impressive as he built a knock of real substance and character.
That century at the Kensington Oval, alongside Jason Holder, took the Test away from England. And in many ways, with West Indies having built a formidable lead in a low scoring game, he may have done the exact the same while exorcising his demons from three years ago.
Cricketers with 4,000 runs and 150 wickets in Tests:
— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) July 10, 2020
🏏 Sir Garry Sobers
🏏 Sir Ian Botham
🏏 Kapil Dev
🏏 Jacques Kallis
🏏 Daniel Vettori
🏏 Ben Stokes#ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/QhNHo0yW14
England's overworked allrounder captain limped through the evening session with an exhaustive spell during which he was nursing a toe problem. By the end of the Windies innings, his 14 overs had yielded figures of 4-49 and kept his side in the contest.
With the home side needing some inspiration to stifle a dominant Windies outfit, Stokes once again stepped up the mantle. There was no sign of him throwing the ball to anyone.
The highlight, on a pitch offering little zip, was the manner in which he penetrated Alzarri Joseph's defences with a ripper. It saw the Durham man become the sixth player to reach 150 wickets and 4,000 runs.
Five other players have reached both landmarks in Tests, with only Garry Sobers doing it in fewer Tests appearances (63 compared to Stokes' 64). For those still itching for a quiz fix post-lockdown, Jacques Kallis, Sir Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and Daniel Vettori are the others.
Out of the delight of those milestones comes a word of caution. Stokes, as is the temptation when bowlers skipper a side, under-used himself. For all the pace of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, Stokes was the most probing of the seamers on a featherbed surface.
Additionally, while the 29-year-old's competitiveness is so often celebrated it could be his downfall. His toe issue mightn't be serious, but he was never going to relent and that belligerence will eventually be his downfall. Playing through the pain barrier might win him awards and respect, but it will shave years off his career.
Save 30% when you subscribe to The Cricketer’s print & digital bundle. £35 for 12 issues
Welcome to www.thecricketer.com - the online home of the world’s oldest cricket magazine. Breaking news, interviews, opinion and cricket goodness from every corner of our beautiful sport, from village green to national arena.