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George Dobell in Dubai
January 31, 2012
If the first step to recovery is the acceptance of a problem, then England might just have embarked on the road to rehabilitation.
England arrived in the UAE as the No.1 ranked Test side and with a glowing reputation. Two Test defeats later, however, and England's flaws have been revealed. England may remain, officially, the best ranked Test side, but the title has a hollow ring at present.
It leaves England at a crossroads. Overcome their issues with Asian conditions and, in particular, high-quality spin bowling, and this period may yet come to be remembered as little more than a blip. Fail to overcome the spin threat and they will slide down the rankings. How they respond to that challenge may well define the legacy of this side.
The impressive thing, from an England perspective, is the lack of denial. The team held a meeting before training on Tuesday - an echo of events of early 2009 when they were humbled in Jamaica - where they accepted that it was time to face facts: they have a significant challenge and their currents methods are not working.
It was a point made eloquently by Ian Bell. In many ways, Bell's problems in this series are a microcosm of the side's issues. He arrived in the UAE with an excellent reputation, on the back of a wonderful year but has, to date, looked all at sea against Saeed Ajmal, in particular. Bell is averaging just nine and has been dismissed by Ajmal's doosra three times in four innings.
"There is no point saying we were great the last two years and nothing is wrong," Bell said. "We all know we haven't played good enough cricket here and we would be stupid just to carry on what we're doing.
"There's no point in looking back and saying how great we were against Australia or how great we were against India. It is about now and the next challenges. We have a lot of cricket in the subcontinent and we have to get better; individually and as a unit. We can't keep looking back and patting ourselves on the back - that's all gone."
Bell was the man dropped after that humiliating reverse in Jamaica, but feels there are few parallels between that situation and England's current problems. Instead he hopes that England's success over the last couple of years should give them the confidence to face this new obstacle and insists that the side are relishing the challenge.
"It was the right decision to drop me," Bell said. "I hadn't scored runs for a while. It's a different scenario now. I've played consistently well now for two years and we've had two bad Test matches. So, I'm looking to put in a good performance in this next Test. I don't think I've lost my confidence that's for sure. I can look back on some good things over the last two years.
"The final piece of this England team is to win in the subcontinent. There's no doubt we're not doing things quite right and that we're going to have to get better. It's exciting, as well. We've been given a real whack here and it's nice to know in Test cricket that there are still challenges for us.
"My preparation has been good. We knew what we were going to come up against. I knew I would be starting, in most innings, against spin," he added. "I still feel I'm hitting the ball nicely. I just haven't been able to get past that initial hard stage of batting - that first 20-ball period. That's the danger time, you need to work hard to get to the period where it becomes a bit easier and you can begin to pick the different deliveries. In three of my innings, I've been knocked over quite early.
"All credit to Pakistan. They have played very well. They have bowled particularly well at new batsmen. They've bowled at a good pace; it's really quick spin. You have to work hard. Batting in the subcontinent you have to get through those first 20-25 deliveries, then things seem to come that little bit easier. So far I haven't really got through that so I'll be desperate to work hard to stay in there and survive, then go on to get some runs. I'd love to use my feet to the spinners, but I've not been in there long enough to do that."
Bell is realistic enough to know that there is little time for England's batsmen to learn. The third Test begins on Friday and, barely a week after the conclusion of this tour, England will face similar challenges in Sri Lanka. He makes no promises of success, only assurances of hard work and good intent.
"We all sat down and spoke about what we have done and the mistakes we've made," Bell said. "And about how we want to get better. We are all desperate - as a group - in wanting to win Tests in the subcontinent. We can achieve that. It is the last thing that we need to do - we need to start scoring runs in the subcontinent. If we can do that we can start moving forward again.
"We need to improve. That might not happen by the next Test but we have Sri Lanka coming up and India, so we have to talk about it now. We have to be honest. There is no point putting it off until Sri Lanka or India because we might make the same mistakes again."
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