Josh Tongue and the tale of an enigmatic spell where the bad balls were woeful and the good ones were pearls.
If you look at a bowling figure that reads 13 overs bowled, 47 runs given, and 2 wickets taken, you’d say that it is a pretty decent one all things being equal.
Well, welcome to the bowling performance of the English bowling enigma that is Josh Tongue.
Tongue bowled like a drunk man fighting a pro boxer, but only to realise that he knocked his opponent clean with two hard punches. It’s difficult to remember an England seamer playing more haphazardly, but Tongue stunned everyone, including himself, by striking the bullseye twice in 12 balls.
In his first over of this one, he was completely insane, pushing one ball so far outside off stump that it was deemed wide and spraying two so far down the leg side that they cost five each. He was left out for the third and fourth Test matches. In order to overcome his difficulties with the landing area, he required more than just sawdust.
The spell that Tongue’s former Worcestershire teammate George Scrimshaw bowled during his England debut against Ireland two years ago, in which his first two overs cost 35 runs and contained six front-foot no-balls, was somewhat reminiscent. Tongue’s lack of control was equally concerning, to the point of arousing compassion, if he continued to step behind the queue.
A switch of ends had no effect. Tongue rushed in from the Pavilion End and blasted his first ball down the leg side following the rain delay and five overs from the Vauxhall End prior to lunch. His first unplayable ball then appeared out of nowhere, angling around the wicket towards B Sai Sudharsan’s off stump before nipping away to grab the outside edge.
However, the outcome seemed to be unaffected by the wicket. His first two balls to Ravindra Jadeja went for eight runs, and his subsequent over to Karun Nair was errant.
After two balls were blasted on either side of the wicket, the second jaffa—a surprise straight ball—came next. Although it was around two meters shorter, the line that took the batsman’s shoulder was the same as the one that dismissed Sai Sudharsan. Smith made another easy catch that left Jadeja speechless, and Tongue smiled before giggling uncontrollably as he and Zak Crawley celebrated.
Tongue’s career in England was summed up in harsh terms. When you look at his 25 Test wickets, you could think he was the best bowler in the world. Two summers ago, he got rid of Steven Smith and David Warner with a swinging yorker, and in Birmingham, he tore off Jadeja’s glove and knocked back KL Rahul’s middle stump.
Alongside the positive, there have been a lot of negative things. He is the only bowler from England to have more than 25 Test wickets and an economy rate above four at this early point in his career. The Tongue Paradox, however, is that his lousy balls can enhance his excellent ones because of the element of surprise.
Tongue’s actions were the obvious culmination of England’s selection strategy, which selects players based on their finest abilities rather than their worst traits. It is an unreservedly upbeat approach that acknowledges Tongue as a bowler of fantastic balls rather than a great bowler.
It is a tactic that acknowledges a basic reality of Test cricket and has the potential to yield drastic outcomes. Despite its demands on mental and physical toughness, it is all about moments: winning requires at least 20 wicket-taking opportunities, regardless of what stands in the way.