The monumental restart of International Cricket (Post Covid-19)

Test cricket returned in all its glory on Thursday, 9^th of June, to very unfamiliar circumstances. An empty Rose Bowl stadium in Southampton. The ground, filled with only staff, players, officials, and media personnel welcomed the hosts England and their opponents West Indies to kick off a three Test match series. The empty ground, new SOPs, and a few rule changes meant that this match was going to be very different from what we have seen before. Moreover, the four-month break without any sort of cricket was bound to take a mental and emotional toll on both sets of the international players.

A cloudy day in Southampton welcomed captains Ben Stoke and Jason Holder. The temporary captain in absence of Joe Root, Stokes won the toss and decided to bat, a decision he might want to look back on. England looked rusty from the start, as the West Indies pace attack presented an excellent display of swing attack. Captain, Jason Holder took a remarkable 5 wicket haul (6 wickets in total), accompanied by Gabriel’s 4 wickets to bowl England out for 204, where captain Ben Stokes was the top scorer by salvaging only 43. Rory Burns and Jos Buttler played important cameos in this total.
The West Indies started confident, losing only 1 wicket at the 100-run mark thanks to Kraigg Braithwaite’s resilience. Soon after, the Windies started losing wickets gradually through efforts from Anderson, Bess and Stokes. The Jason Holder lead side looked a sure shot at achieving a minimum 200 run lead, that was until the 6^th wicket fell at the score of 267 through a classic Jimmy Anderson LBW. This was the point when Stokes cruised through the wickets leading from the front, dismantling the West Indies side for 318 with a lead of 114 runs. If Ben Stokes had just a wicket more, this would be the first match in history where both captains have 5-wicket hauls, a feat that can still be achieved in the second innings. After Braithwaite , Dowrich and Chase played concrete innings to get to the 300 run mark, however the tail displayed poor technique which led them to get out before the should have.

England currently stand at 15 for the loss of no wickets at the end of day 3, trailing by 99 runs. The quick wickets at the last part of West Indies’ innings should surely boost their confidence at this match not being out of their hands right now. If they can bat at a quick run rate, and set up a target of around 250 for the West Indies with a day to bowl to them, they could have a very significant chance of winning this match, however the English top order will need to step up comparatively to last innings. Another interesting fact presented by Mazhar Arshad on Twitter said: West Indies have never lost a Test after their batsmen have earned them 100+ runs lead. Of 84 such instances, they have won 51 Tests and drew 33.
Will this statistic be broken in this match? Or will Jason Holder’s men cause an upset in the first Test against the World Champions? Whatever you say about the current circumstances, the first Test match of the #RaiseTheBat series in cricket’s much awaited restart is surely turning out to be exciting!