England's struggles prove the red ball rest is not working

At what point does a reset need resetting? It was a question being debated by England supporters on Saturday as Joe Root’s team lurched towards even greater ignominy in this witless, winless winter.

It was dressed up as a bold move by Sir Andrew Strauss to drop the decorated duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Small incremental change, he said, would not make the difference required.

Yet as an England attack without its two most prolific bowlers in history expended a full morning session and an extra quarter of an hour in Grenada to secure the small incremental change that would have transformed West Indies’ innings from eight wickets down to all out, it brought into focus that they had done so with four seamers of similar pace.

At best it was ambitious to attempt to secure only a second series win in the Caribbean in 54 years by ditching the prime new-ball pair of their generation. At worst, an aberration. Frankly, it was insulting to think a team with such a proud history as the West Indies could be defeated without the need to select the strongest possible XIs.

And as Joshua Da Silva was given safe passage to his maiden Test hundred by his fellow Trinidadian Jayden Seales, the number 11, there was an inescapable feeling that one of England’s bowlers with a combined haul of 1,177 victims might just have come up with a plan.

For two hours, those selected in their place did not appear to have one, bowling as if time would be a sealer. Yet resolve grew in the Windies’ final pair with each passing delivery.

Saqib Mahmood had highlighted the way forward by thudding the ball into the pitch — as Chris Woakes had done with a change of tack in the first innings — to remove Kemar Roach early on.

However, aside from rapping