Return of Ben Stokes adds spice to an already exciting Trent Bridge decider
ICC World Test Championship
Trent Bridge will be the sight of the final battle between England and New Zealand this summer when they go against each other on Thursday in the decider of this three-match series. England took the lead by winning the first Test at The Lord's Cricket Ground by 115 runs and New Zealand responded back at The Oval by sealing an emphatic 253 run win and levelling the series 1-1. The whole tour has been surrounded by it's fair share of controversies, axing and recalling of personnel, shock retirements and criticism of the playing surfaces making this a memorable clash between two passionate cricketing nations.
The biggest news that came in before the start of this Test was the recall of captain Ben Stokes and right-arm pacer Gus Atkinson, both of whom were dropped for the previous fixture in the wake of a nightclub incident with a local ruby team. Once the news of this occurrence broke out, it caused a huge furore in the cricket community creating enormous pressure on the ECB to take corrective action and even rumors of a potential retirement starting floating around since both the players broke a midnight curfew imposed on the team after their antics on tours of New Zealand and Australia last winter. Cricket Regulator, a body which oversees compliance and enforcement of game regulations passed both Stokes and Atkinson innocent as they found no evidence of any foul-play from the national cricketers after reviewing two different events which took place on the same night. This fast-tracked investigation combined with England's abysmal display at The Oval almost forced the hands of the selectors to include their regular skipper and Atkinson back for this deciding game.
Stokes resumes captaincy in a bid to secure the series
Ben Stokes has become close to an enigma for English cricket. A man who has been a major contributor in nearly all of England's biggest achievements on the cricketing field in the past few years, has often divided audience with his antics off the field. There were a few contrasting views on the latest mishap with a few ex-cricketers backing Stokes to continue his leadership whereas others criticised his actions as the commander of this group. Stokes also received support from his contemporaries like Nathan Lyon as he bided his time training with Durham and playing the latest round of County Championship during last week's proceeding until ECB pulled him and Atkinson out in the middle of the match and added them to the squad for the third Test.
Stokes started his captaincy stint with 9 wins in the starting 10 games in-charge. Although his record has taken a beating recently and the results against giants India and Australia have been disappointing, he still has the second best Win percentage among the English skippers who have led the side for a minimum of 15 Tests. Stokes is now three away from Joe Root's record of most wins as captain (27) for England. There is a certain charisma he eludes on the field making everyone believe even when things are not going there way, a spark which was missing in the preceding two games he has missed, both at The Oval versus New Zealand last week and India in 2025. Stokes possesses an attacking mindset with a winning mentality and acts as a catalyst to pull the local fans towards Test cricket.
It must have been over-whelming for Ben Stokes to see the support he received from his supporters all around the world which would have made the decision to continue much easier. Captaincy does take a toll on your mental well-being and Stokes has looked weary at times in the past four years but the breaking news is that he is back and will be leading the side at Trent Bridge. He has faced such situations multiple times in his playing career and has become somewhat of a genius at making comebacks.
In the previous game for Durham, Stokes bowled 25 overs and scored 95 with the bat, which should serve him well since he has struggled with his batting form recently. At 35-years old, it will be interesting to see how much he has in him to offer both as a leader and as a player and I believe we should cherish the time he has left. We might still see him step down from captaincy in the immediate future but it has been admirable to see the commitment Stokes has displayed for Test cricket with an injury-plagued body. Right now England cricket needs him badly and he will be answering the call when he walks up during coin toss with Tom Latham.
Robinson left out for Archer as England ring the changes
England has played a total of 16 different players in the two concluded matches until now in this series. Post a win in the opening encounter, they were forced to make 5 changes due to missing personnel for multiple reasons. The selectors dropped Stokes and Atkinson also leaving out Shoaib Bashir to find some balance in the final eleven. Player of the Match at Lord's, Ollie Robinson was ruled out due to knee soreness and Jamie Smith was out on paternity leave. Jofra Archer, Matthew Fisher, debutants Sonny Baker, Jordan Cox and Sonny Baker replaced them in the previous game. Four of those have now been superseded by the familiar names with Jofra Archer keeping his place ahead of Ollie Robinson.
Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay will continue their opening partnership with a highest of 52 in four innings so far. Jacob Bethell who has scored just 29 runs in this series will come in next followed by the second-highest run scorer in Test cricket, Joe Root, vice-captain Harry Brook and wicket-keeper Jamie Smith who returns after the birth of his second child. Skipper Ben Stokes will bat at seven and will be part of the bowling attack which includes Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and off-spinner Shoaib Bashir.
Ollie Robinson was selected after his exploits in domestic cricket to take the new ball role as an enforcer for a side who has missed the control of the now retired Sir James Anderson. Robinson started the match with a three-wicket maiden in a Player of the Match performance taking 7-77 and scoring a quickfire 29 in the second innings of a low-scoring game. He was ruled out of the subsequent fixture due to a knee issue but was announced fit for this game. Jofra Archer who missed the opening test due to workload management after a busy run in the T20 format looked rusty in his first red-ball appearance for six months leaking too many extras due to poor lines but bowled with good pace. He has now retained his place ahead of Robinson who was available for selection at Nottingham until confirmed otherwise by the management. It will be interesting to see how this decision shapes up given coach Brendon McCullum has been adamant for control and accuracy with the new ball post his re-appointment as the head coach.
Another interesting strategy will be how they use Shoaib Bashir. Trent Bridge has been a happy hunting ground for Bashir. He has taken 16 wickets in the preceding two games played at this venue including two fifers against Zimbabwe and West Indies tying with Jasprit Bumrah as the highest wicket-taker in the last five games at Trent Bridge. His 9 wickets in the match against Zimbabwe earned him the Player of the Match award. Interestingly, Bashir has not bowled a single delivery in Test cricket post a finger injury which ruled him out of the India series in 2025. Bashir was outranked by Will Jacks in the last three games of the Ashes and even though he was selected for the Lord's Test he was not used with the ball in the entire game. Since Bashir has been included in the XI despite Bethell's impact with the ball in the previous game, we might see him in an expanded role here depending on the help spinners get from the wicket.
New Zealand aspire to continue acquired momentum
The mood in the Kiwi camp has gone from gloomy to joyous in a space of five days. New Zealand warmed up for this series with an innings versus Ireland at Belfast. They lost the first match at Lord's as their batting faltered on an extremely uneven wicket and were hit with another major blow with a mid-series retirement by their iconic No. 3 Kane Williamson. There were injury doubts on their most experienced bowler Matt Henry too after he pulled a lower back issue in the first innings at Lord's although came back in the second innings to bowl 11 overs. Henry Nicholls replaced Williamson in the second Test while the others remained unchanged.
What followed was almost a complete performance by the visitors led by centuries from Glenn Phillips & Henry Nicholls combined with a match-winning 11-109 by spearhead Matt Henry. They settled into a good rhythm after being asked to bat on a good batting wicket and pounced on some below-par bowling from a fresh-looking English bowling attack to score 350+ totals in both innings. If Phillips dominated the short balls to score his maiden Test century in the first essay, Nicholls did not give a hint to the opposing team on his comeback with his 11th Test ton to set England a target of 463.
Their fast bowlers had already performed brightly in the first Test thanks to fifers from Kyle Jamieson and Nathan Smith. It was Matt Henry's turn to swing the match in Black Caps' favor with a unique bowling plan, calling the keeper up to the stumps and targeting the wicket-to-wicket line as he completed a fifer in each innings and claiming his first 10-wicket haul in Tests. The highlight of his bowling was how he did a double on England's best batters Joe Root and Harry Brook pinging both on the pads in front of the stumps and then forcing and edge from Brook to first slip followed by another plumb decision of Joe Root.
The Black Caps suddenly looked like a better team among the two going into the decider. The batting line-up is well settled although they would love a few runs from their openers especially skipper Tom Latham who has never got going in English conditions. The whole middle-order scored 50+ runs in the second Test which hold the in good stead and the bowling attack looks deadly. Their fast-bowling quartet are playing together for the first time and all of them are on an injury-comeback trail. If the management decides to rest either of the four they have the option of replacing them with the tall 32-year old Blair Tickner or including the left-arm spin of Mitchell Santner who can prove handy on this ground.
Trent Bridge, a happy-hunting ground for the hosts
Since the start of 2010, Trent Bridge has the second best Win/Loss ratio for the hosts after Old Trafford. They have played 12 matches in this period winning 8 and losing 2. Traditionally a batting first wicket, teams have chosen to bowl four times after winning the toss in the last 5 games. England's top three scored centuries in the previous match with Zimbabwe but two of them, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope are not part of this set-up anymore.
Their highest run-scorer, Joe Root enjoys batting Nottingham. Root averages 68.28 in 15 innings with a total of 956 in 5 centuries. The surface here is batter-friendly and in the former three games, teams have recorded six 400+ scores. England played New Zealand here in 2022, when both team scored first innings total of 553 & 539 but the hosts chased the target of 299 with a run-rate of 6 per over. Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell scored centuries for the Kiwis which was responded back in kind by Joe Root and Ollie Pope. Jonny Bairstow 136* off 92 balls in the last innings sealing the match and the series for England.
We are in the middle of a heat wave and the weather is expected to hold for the duration of the match with slight rain expected on Sunday. Conditions may remain overcast from Day 2. Notts have played 5 matches on this ground in the County Championship so far which resulted in three draws, one win and one loss. It's been a mixed bag for the batters but generally the scores have been on the higher side at the start of the game. Seamers have enjoyed the initial phases and the impact of spinners has grown in the latter stages.
Hard-fought series signifies the proximity of a third Test
The International cricket calendar is becoming progressively busy owing to the increasing number of T20 franchise leagues and the financial yearning of white-ball cricket, especially the shortest format. Due to this paradox, the two-match Test series have become gradually prevalent. Every World Test Championship has consisted of 27 Test series in total. The number of two-match affairs in 2021-23 were 17 and in the subsequent two editions they are numbered at 18. Cricket fans have for long complained about the absence of a deciding Test match whenever an exciting two-match series has been played especially since the wickets have steadily become result-oriented.
In the current cycle, there has been only 1 such tied instance in 5 completed two-match series between South Africa and Pakistan last year in a closely-contested battle. However, in the past two editions we saw 5 and 6 such draws respectively. Bangladesh are the only team who have the entire WTC with two-match series only. Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand have also majorly participated in the same. The current WTC champions played only twelve matches from six series in the previous cycle.
The Big Three, India, England & Australia have prioritized Test cricket regularly especially England who try to play a minimum of three-match series with every opponent. But with time, these teams have confirmed a minimum of 5 matches among themselves decreasing the number of Tests with other teams. India for example play England and Australia for five matches but only two with the other four opponents West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand in this cycle.
This series between England and New Zealand hands us an important reminder why three matches are a minimum which will help draw the crowd towards the purest form of this sport. A three-match series also helps to shed an incomplete feeling everyone has in an incomplete draw. Many players have also voiced their opinions about the increase in Tests like the fans waiting for the ICC to take some action. The hope still exists that something will be done but with the highest authority in cricket taking a decision to include one-off Tests as part of WTC, a change in the near future looks unlikely.
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