Headingley Day 3: Dropping England’s snickers turns India’s task into a marathon

Yashasvi Jaiswal has had quite a complicated relationship with snicko. His heroic second innings knock in last year’s Boxing Day Test was ended when third umpire Sharfuddoula Saikat adjudged, with his own eyes, that Jaiswal had gloved the ball to Alex Carey despite no spike appearing. 

Barring the highly unlikely but not impossible case that the latest of swing kicked in just as the ball passed his hands, the change of trajectory could only have been caused by a deflection. Warren Brennan, whose company BBG sports operates Snicko, stated glove glances don’t show spikes because they only make “ambient noise”. That explanation probably didn’t make Indian fans feel particularly ambient. 

Today, after Jamie Smith attempted a pull to Prasidh Krishna, it was an eagle-eared Jaiswal who persuaded his captain to go upstairs for a rematch with his tech nemesis. The young opener is quite vocal in the field, despite not always being the most sure footed on it. He’d put down Pope early yesterday and there was another costly spill of Brook today. It is testament to his resilient confidence and burgeoning status that he was the one who bent Gill’s ear, particularly given the similarities of the situation to the MCG mystery.

This time there was no spike and no deflection, Smith remained not out on review, but with the new ball imminent, he had still played the shot to a leg-side trap so well-established and obvious that the Indian fielders may as well have been inside wooden horses. 

After the considerable DRS delay and not believing his air shot might necessitate a reappraisal of tactics, England’s keeper played the pull again the very next ball and holed out at deep square for a helpful but not pivotal 40. On the balcony a while later he was pictured smiling next to the coaches. This probably didn’t make some England fans feel particularly ambient. 

There’s no particular reason why he shouldn’t have been, however silly playing a shot he’d played falsely the ball before when Bumrah and the new ball were waiting for their next victim. Add to this the fact a break in play rarely seems to make a batter less vulnerable. The exhilaration ethos is the England way at present, though, and, having taken Krishna for a four and a maximum with the same shot the previous over, Smith probably felt he had licence and even a duty to continue. He’s in a team where constant plunder is encouraged and traps are there to stride into unabashed. For all the risks, it pressurises fielding sides and it’s hard not to think this relentlessness may have contributed to India’s allowing perhaps 150 runs more than they should have. 

That game in Melbourne, Jaiswal also put down three catches. He hasn’t been alone in the ball glancing off his ungloved hands at Headingley. He and his team mates will need vast improvement in the field if they’re to turn England’s bellicose pride and aggression into their undoing. And, above all, spare Bumrah having to bowl 25 overs an innings.