West Indies look to level the series.
The last time England and West Indies were in Headingley, only Alastair Cook was part of the match. It was in 2007. 10 years on and both teams meet again at the same venue. But, England will be more happy than West Indies to play here. West Indies are yet to win a Test match in England after 2000 and it doesn’t look like the record will be broken in the second Test which begins Friday.
After the first Test — a Day-Night Test played with pink ball — West Indies seen as a team that doesn’t belong to Test cricket. Question were even raised over Test cricket itself. England routed the visitors by an innings and 209 runs inside three days and took 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
West Indies looked is shambles in the first Test as no batsmen scored a century while for England, two batsmen did with one of them going to to convert that into a double. Joe Root and Alastair Cook will look to continue their form and put some more runs.
West Indies bowlers need to step up as well. While Cook and Root batted superbly in Edgbaston, the West Indies bowlers did a pathetic job to stop the runs or pick wickets. England piled up runs with ease and later, James Andeson and Stuart Broad ran through the Windies line-up not once but twice.
It’s once again a battle with themselves if they can show some fight in the second Test and level the series. Their batsmen, apart from two fifties in two innings, have failed. No one has taken the responsibility to score runs at the top or middle order.
In the bowling department, West Indies have been guilty of bowling wide delivery down the leg-side took Cook. They did not bowl the length which could have forced the batsmen to play the deliveries.
