India spent a day with Manchester United’s squad before the fourth Test, only to then pull off the kind of collective defensive effort rarely seen at the other Old Trafford in recent seasons. But they were not alone in veering away from their pre‑match preparations.
Gilbert Enoka, the All Blacks adviser who made famous their “no dickheads” policy, did some work with England on the training days, only for them to act briefly like … well, let’s just say their adoption of something similar remains a work in progress.
In the wash-up this has become known inevitably as handshake‑gate. At 5.20pm on day five, the start of the last hour and with the draw a dead certainty, Ben Stokes hoped to get his players off the field pronto after 143 overs of toil for four paltry wickets. The physical act of shaking hands at this juncture is only customary but the playing conditions permit an early finish if both captains – or the batters out in the middle, who can act on behalf of their leader – agree. It was not an unreasonable or unusual request.
India wanted to bat on, however, to reward two players with the centuries that they felt their efforts merited. While the seasoned Ravindra Jadeja, on 89, had been there four times previously, Washington Sundar, on 80, was chasing his first in Test cricket. Though in one sense a confection – 100 is just one more than 99, etc – all players crave three figures and see their careers judged on them also. Declining England’s offer, and giving their own supporters a couple of moments to cheer, was also not unreasonable.
So as tedious as the last rites were going to be for them, it was here where England had to simply crack on. Harry Brook sending down some of his right‑arm filth to spare the frontliners and hasten matters was fine but it was the sarcastic chirping that was objectively poor. In contrast to their aggression at Lord’s – a legitimate tactic in pursuit of a victory, India doing much the same – shouting “Embarrassing” and “Fucking hell, Washi, get on with it” amounted to sour grapes at being denied the early cut.
Although there is some mitigation. Like a stopped clock, Kevin Pietersen was right when he posted on social media to stress the exhausted state in which Stokes and his men found themselves (something India were also happy to deepen). This has been a brutal series for both sets of players, the kind that will inevitably lead to lapses in judgment. Four unyielding five‑day surfaces in five weeks have strained sinews and synapses in a manner that, with all due respect, the Hundred is highly unlikely to match next month.
And the needle that has bubbled up during this series is at the very least a byproduct of the commitment that paying spectators demand. There is a reason Test cricket still commands the bulk of the television revenue in the UK, or why Virat Kohli described winning the Indian Premier League as being “five levels” below any achievements in whites. Franchise cricket does feature the odd flashpoint and many of its players compete as hard as they would for a national team. But by definition it is the lesser product and, in this country at least, yet to stir anything close to the same emotions among the public.
David Rudder, the legendary calypsonian, summed it up neatly when speaking to me from his home in Canada a few years ago: “I always tell people in North America who say Test cricket is boring that they should look at it this way: you can have a regular soldier in the army – a GI – but then you have special forces. And that is what Test cricketers are. It’s not just basic training, it’s sending guys out to survive for days.”
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England’s GIs simply got it wrong during those graceless final moments and since then there may even be some sheepishness in the camp. Not that Stokes is likely to voice it publicly. He may have only just drawn level with Ian Botham’s 14 Test centuries but he has long since been cut from the same cloth: never look back, no regrets, onwards, upwards and the like. The Botham gene is what makes Stokes such a force, the very foundation of his maniacal approach to training and playing. This contest, and England’s 2-1 lead going into the fifth Test starting on Thursday, would be diminished without it.
What that last day in Manchester did show unquestionably was that England struggle when Stokes cannot operate at full tilt and India, even in transition, can never be written off. The Australians celebrating a draw at Old Trafford 20 years ago was used by Michael Vaughan to galvanise his players – proof of a once great team’s sudden vulnerability. In this instance, however, it pointed to a touring side that is united.
