Alastair Cook steadies England against South Africa at the Oval

This was a grubby, grey day of Test cricket, in which there was no doubting the desire of the England team to dig in and fight, but we are not necessarily any the wiser.

In between the showers England, having won a toss of dubious worth, battled to 171-4 in the 59 overs of play that were possible. Alastair Cook back at the helm, hit an unbeaten 82, his best Test innings of the summer so far. It is hardly a dominant position but with the latest rejig of the team there is still batting to come.

Joe Root is leading a side with three debutants. On the eve of the match the first Test appearances of Tom Westley and Toby Roland-Jones had been confirmed; on a blustery morning Dawid Malan was preferred to Liam Dawson, which meant that Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali were on the scorecard at seven and eight. England cricketers swap roles with the regularity of Dutch footballers of the 1970s. Yet the notion of “total cricket” is somehow not so convincing or beguiling as the halcyon days of Johan Cruyff and co. The jigsaw may still be missing a few pieces.

This may well apply to the identity of Cook’s opening partner. The current occupant, Keaton Jennings, departed for a duck in Vernon Philander’s second over and will surely not be around at Old Trafford next week if he fails to make a significant contribution in the second innings. Currently he has 44 runs in five knocks.

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Out of form

Jennings, stiff-legged in defence with his head a long way from the ball, prodded forward and the ball sliced off his edge to Dean Elgar at third slip. At the moment Jennings looks out of form and out of his depth and one wonders whether the selectors are doing him any favours. The question they appear to be asking themselves is: “Have we given him enough chances to have a fair go?” Better questions might be: “Do we really think he is going to score runs at the moment? Does his form currently justify him being in our best team?”

Fairness may not be the first priority of selectors.

So within a quarter of an hour Cook was joined by his Essex colleague Tom Westley and they reached an early lunch together with some assurance. Cook was the Cook of old. You know the drill by now: solid in defence, flicks to square leg, the odd stolen single and measured drive, a paragon of relaxed concentration.

Westley was more interesting since he is new at this level. He bats on off-stump, almost inviting the bowler to attack his stumps in pursuit of an lbw. He stands still and when the bowlers were tempted he clipped the ball to the leg side with some style. Keshav Maharaj was introduced and Westley took two boundaries in an over from a flat-batted drive through the covers and a more polished one through mid-wicket. Meanwhile he carefully ignored anything outside off-stump from the quick bowlers, all very impressive.

But immediately after lunch it was Westley who was tempted. He aimed to cover drive against Chris Morris and edged to second slip. Until then he had looked the part. In the future he will increasingly be denied the opportunity to explore the leg-side; instead he will be invited to cover-drive, a less favoured shot for him and he will have to work out his response as he discovers that Test bowlers tend to be more patient and accurate than those he has encountered in county cricket.

Hit the seam

Root was away quickly, which always seems to be the case. Somehow he guides the ball past gully as if it is the safest shot in the book, but the return of Philander, who had been suffering from a stomach bug, dealt with the England captain. Philander hit the seam yet again and the ball took the edge, whereupon Quinton de Kock took a fine catch diving to his right.

Root could console himself that he had been dismissed by a superb delivery. So could poor Malan though that may not have been a huge consolation to him after his first Test innings. Kagiso Rabada produced a wonderful inswinging yorker, which splattered the stumps and left Malan on all fours with one run to his name. Welcome to Test cricket.

Cook remained rock solid as the latest batch of interns came and went. As the clouds scudded across Kennington Ben Stokes, in grimly responsible mode, was his ally. In between the showers they added 51 together in tricky conditions and against a fine attack.

As is often the case when South Africa play in England, Philander had the best figures in between his visits to the dressing room but it would be hard to argue that he bowled much better than Morne Morkel, who was wicketless in his 16 overs despite beating the bat frequently. Rabada delivered the ball of the day while Morris is no slouch and Maharaj was on target.

This was a high-quality battle at the start of a game that has yet to take shape, not that Westley or Malan will forget the day in a hurry. Guardian Service