'Day in the dirt start of England's life after Anderson'

Maybe this was the time when James Anderson was glad to have been ushered into retirement.

Now a former England player, Anderson had the luxury of a seat in the dressing room, rather than a day in the dirt, as his old team-mates were slow roasted by Kavem Hodge in the Trent Bridge sun.

West Indies ended day two of the second Test on 351-5, 65 behind, revitalised and alive in the series.

As a newly appointed consultant, Anderson has been teaching Ben Stokes how to bowl the wobble seam and throwing the ball for Brendon McCullum to edge to the slip fielders for catching practice, the latter lacking the accuracy of his bowling.

Was it inevitable that England would toil as soon as the post-Anderson era began? Did Stokes ever glance to the pavilion and wonder if he made a horrible mistake? At one point, spectators in the Fox Road Stand started chanting Anderson's name.

England’s reliance on Anderson and his old mate Stuart Broad means this is the first home Test in 12 years that neither have featured. None of the current XI would have ever known a home match without at least one of Branderson in the side.

Where would the great pair have taken England on Friday? A question impossible to answer, but it is not too much of a leap to suggest even two GOATs would have found it a slog.

This was hard yakka in hot sun on an unresponsive pitch with a ball less likely to misbehave than a child on Christmas Eve. There was much less swing and seam movement than the 10-year average for the second day of Tests in England, until the hosts finally got a third-change nut to wobble around late in the day.

These were the sort of conditions where England have often struggled, even with Anderson and Broad in the side. Australian, almost. If the planning is for an Ashes in Australia, then this was much more useful than rolling over an underprepared Windies at Lord’s in a glorified Anderson testimonial.

England's bowling has evolved in rapid fashion. From the first Ashes Test last summer, Anderson and Broad have taken their pipe and slippers, while Ollie Robinson is on the naughty step. Moeen Ali is another in Test retirement and the man he covered, Jack Leach, has been overlooked.

It might be a stretch to say the attack has been refreshed when it contains 35-year-old Chris Woakes and 34-year-old Mark Wood, though Shoaib Bashir only made his first-class debut last June and Gus Atkinson is England’s new-ball bowler despite opening on just three previous occasions for Surrey.

Of the quartet, it is Woakes who is coming under most scrutiny, curious for a man who transformed the Ashes and walked away as player of the series.

The question is logical enough. If Anderson is being pensioned off at 41 because he won't make it to Australia then why is Woakes, an inferior bowler (that's not an insult, most bowlers are inferior to Anderson) and suffering from chronic travel sickness (he averages more than 50 overseas compared to 22 at home), England's new attack leader?

Stokes said he couldn't answer the question without sounding "ageist" and admitted that all who remain in the squad are in contention for the Ashes tour.

Woakes' ability to score runs at number eight is a key advantage. Yes, he was overlooked for the tour of India, albeit in a squad containing three fast bowlers in a series where England sometimes only played one.

If five or six are to travel to Australia, there is a role for him, providing lower-order ballast and bowling legs to the likes of Wood, Atkinson, Josh Tongue and maybe Jofra Archer, who would be used in short bursts.

It has been a tough period for Woakes following the death of his father and he was down on pace on Friday in Nottingham, but showed his worth to come back energised late in the day and claim the crucial wicket of Hodge.

Pace is not lacking for Wood, who England would quite happily cryogenically freeze for the next year and a bit to ensure he is on the plane down under. His bowling at Trent Bridge was electrifying, the fastest ever recorded by an England bowler in a home Test.

Such was the fire and brimstone wrought by Wood, Hodge pleaded for mercy by telling the bowler he had a "wife and kids" back in Dominica. Somehow Wood went wicketless and will have other days when he bowls worse and claims a hatful.

For Atkinson, this was the reality of Test cricket after the Playstation stuff of claiming 12 wickets on debut at Lord’s. He is learning on the job as a new-ball bowler, and his partnership alongside Wood was England’s paciest since Wood and Olly Stone combined against New Zealand three years ago. There was a period when West Indies had nowhere to hide.

It was actually Bashir who benefitted from the work done by Wood and Atkinson, as both Mikyle Louis and Kirk McKenzie were softened up by the pace, then suckered in by the spin.

At 20 years and 280 days, Bashir became the youngest England spinner since Denis Compton in 1937 to take a wicket in a home Test. England think his height is a crucial asset and his release point of 2.34m is the third-highest recorded for a spinner.

Stokes initially asked Bashir to bowl a 17-over spell, one that started tightly then gradually leaked runs as Hodge and Alick Athanaze worked him out. How Bashir can develop his craft to counter Australians that will want to eat him for breakfast will be key to his success.

Perhaps, though, it is not the rebooted bowling where England need to learn, and instead revisit lessons from long ago.

It seems churlish to question their first-day 416, yet there is no doubt the hosts wasted an even bigger total thanks to some sloppy dismissals. Dropped catches are an illness that England struggle to cure and the slip chance put down by Joe Root off Hodge changed the course of the match.

Ruthlessness with the bat and efficiency in the field are crucial to England, regardless of the bowlers they pick.