Saqib Mahmood’s debut delights offer partial vindication of Broaderson axing

But with that excluded, it’s the lunge, the left arm thrown skyward, the right toe planting, pirouetting, the ball dropping down below the thigh just for a second before being slung towards the batter. Whether or not there’s a hint of Jeff Thompson in it is a matter of some debate, but either way, it’s a sight to behold.

But also, we knew this already. Mahmood might have different run-ups in red- and white-ball cricket, but that moment of landing is the same in both. What we didn’t know, and now have gone some way to finding out, is the rest of the package.

There’s nothing the English cricket scene loves more than hyping up a debutant, and often the best thing a new player on the scene can do is live up to that early expectation. Often they don’t. A supposed top speed of 88mph, touching 90, becomes an average of 83. The suggestion of reverse swing ends as just that. The control is lacking, or the pace drops as the game goes on and the overs start to tot up.

Mahmood lived up to the hype here. Twice in his first over he had Kraigg Brathwaite in trouble beating the outside edge and then rapping him on the pad. 51 overs into the innings and he began to make the ball talk, a vicious in-swinger taking Jermaine Blackwood boot first, but just outside the line. Brought on second change with the second new ball, another wicked yorker castled Blackwood, only for his fifth no-ball of the innings to cut short his celebration.

That maiden scalp came via a hoick from Jason Holder, but it was his second innings spell, kickstarting England’s unlikely victory push, that stood out most. The Nkrumah Bonner ball, extracting life from a dead surface, squaring up West Indies’ first Test saviour and snaffling the edge, cracked the game open. England got closer than they did at Antigua, but the pitch won out in the end.

So what have we learned? That that excitement might have been worth something, and could be worth seeking out from others. Mahmood’s pace remained good, and that reverse swing was found with both first and second old ball. The accuracy seemed to there too, though with a West Indies line-up set only on defence, there were loose balls left unpunished. This wasn’t a riproaring debut to announce the arrival of a generational talent, but it was a promising showing from a promising bowler who is now a little more than just promise.

England set out for the West Indies wanting to find out more about those of whom they knew little, and now they know that Mahmood has it in him to be a wicket-taking option even on pitches that don’t offer standard new-ball movement, a point of difference with the old ball, not with extreme, Mark Wood-type pace, but with other skills. England’s seam-bowling depth has been tested, but it’s still impressive, with Matthew Fisher, their 11th choice quick, hardly out of his depth. If everyone is fit, Mahmood might be England’s fourth-choice non-new-ball option, behind Wood, Jofra Archer and Olly Stone. But without return dates for any of those three, Mahmood suddenly comes into the frame as a key component moving forward in the new future. England know that now.

The question is, did they have to leave Stuart Broad and James Anderson at home to find all this out? With Wood injured, and with Antigua showing the travails of being a conditions-dependent seamer on a flat wicket, would Broad, Anderson and Mahmood not have been the best seam-bowling attack they could pick in any case?

There’s certainly an argument to be made, but this is also an England team that, for all the talk of resets and rest and rotation, has had to be dragged into any level of experimentation. Had Ollie Robinson not been injured before Antigua, England’s bowling attack would have been identical to the one they fielded for the first Ashes Test. Chris Silverwood was rightly criticised for describing last summer’s Test series against the two best sides in the world being preparation for the Ashes, but it was hard to see what England actually discovered of their own volition.

Robinson debuted only with England’s IPL seamers absent. Craig Overton was recalled with Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood all sidelined. Had Wood’s elbow not been injured at Antigua, or had Robinson recovered from his back spasm, would Mahmood even have played in Barbados? Even the rest and rotation policy – again much criticised – largely saw England shuffle the same pack of known knowns around. Whichever hand they drew, it didn’t seem to do them much good.

The effects of this tendency to stick with the tried and tested can be seen even now. Had Robinson debuted in 2020, England would surely have identified his fitness issues sooner. And if England were further along their regeneration process, they would perhaps not have needed to take the dramatic step of leaving Broad and Anderson at home. If you have enough time, peeling a plaster off very very slowly is less painful than ripping it off in one motion.

England now face the double difficulties of being in desperate need of a win – the count is now one victory in 16 – while also finding the players who will make them a Test team to be feared again. But what Mahmood has shown is that giving a youngster a go needn’t be so bad. They might not live up to the billing, but also, they might. And when it comes to next week, when the choice is returning to Overton, Robinson and Woakes, or sticking with Mahmood or Fisher or even giving Matt Parkinson a go, the unknown quantities could be worth trying. Even when they return home, with Broad and Anderson back in the fold, and Woakes’ English excellence entering the equation, another of the seamers in the stable could do the job just as well. And if not, well, there’s only one way to find out.