This does not seem a great time, on the face of it, for England to be marooned in the Middle East without their batting coach. Graham Gooch, who remains employed by the England and Wales Cricket Board on a consultancy basis even though he ended his long association with Essex before Christmas to give more time to the national team, flew home before the start of this Test – notwithstanding England's totals of 192 and 160 in Dubai.
So he will have followed this latest, even more spectacular, disintegration from home, presumably with some combination of horror and disbelief.
Andrew Strauss dismissed the significance of his absence. "Goochie was here for the preparation days," the captain said. "The batting coach doesn't bat for you – never has done, never will do."
It is also true that in their team director, Andy Flower, the England batsmen retain access to the mind of one of the finest players of spin in recent times. But as they contemplate more days in the nets facing some combination of local bowlers, bowling machines and various members of their support staff impersonating Saeed Ajmal's skiddy doosra, Gooch's unavailability to lend his expertise does not look good.
On the evidence of their first innings performances here, Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott are at least heading in the right direction. Cook followed a rare double failure in the first Test, when he was undone by the early introduction of the off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez in the first innings and gloved a hook at Umar Gul in the second, by grinding to 94, England's top score of the series – although after being denied a century by Ajmal's doosra, he fell again to Hameez second time around after eking out seven from 40 balls.
Trott has looked comfortably England's most accomplished player of spin, falling twice to the seamers in the first Test – where he scored 49 in the second innings – and grafting to 74 in Abu Dhabi, where his second-innings failure could be excused by the stomach problems that had forced him to drop to seven in the batting order. But the other four members of the top six continue to grope in the dark.
Strauss offered the most extended resistance in England's second innings, but it would be misleading to claim that he was ever leading a victory bid, as he needed a lucky let-off from the television umpire to reach 32 from 100 balls before he was fifth out, falling to spin for the third time in the series. He has 68 runs from four innings, a modest total that is, nonetheless, more than Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen, England's most positive strokemakers, have managed between them.
After struggling almost as cluelessly on the second evening here as he had in falling to a pair of Ajmal doosras in Dubai, Bell had hinted at cracking the code when he moved to 29 on Friday morning, but his dismissals in each innings were disappointingly tame. Pietersen has strung together scores of 1, 14, 2 and 0, which suggests that his problems with spin continue.
But it is Eoin Morgan who must be causing the most concern, both to himself and his coaches, wherever they are. This series was seen as his big chance to confirm his ability to fill the key role at No6, whether to step on the accelerator or dig England out of a hole. Instead, after flattering to deceive in double-figure scores in Dubai, he has floundered haplessly in making three from 24 balls in two innings here.
Even though he has not batted in the middle all tour, Ravi Bopara must surely be expecting a recall when England seek to avoid the further embarrassment of a whitewash back in Dubai on Friday.
P
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