Champo Specco: the one where it rained after two months of being hotter than takes about Brydon Carse. Having mentioned the Bad Boy of County Cricket, his team Durham were the only ones who managed in a result in the face of the rain, managing to come back on the final day and knock off the 3 (three) runs against a Glos team broadly described as ‘rancid’. Every other side had to make do with draws and a few bonus points, which meant the table hasn’t changed much.
Speaking of things that won’t change that much, England won their test against the ghost of Pakistan present and now we’re at the point in the cycle where we weirdly believe we’re really good without much evidence. So the test squad isn’t likely to change much soon because actually we’re brilliant and we already have all the best players and we definitely aren’t missing an allrounder and a proper spinner and some seam depth and possibly an opener. Because we beat Pakistan. This Pakistan. So the team must be fine actually.
Unfortunately there are a small cohort of people like me who are pathologically unable to accept that champo cricket is pretty irrelevant to the test squad. As such I’m going to be talking up some prospects, talking down some others, and generally wittering on about cricketing scenarios which are very unlikely to ever happen. Which really isn’t a very efficient or productive use of my energy, but is also probably better than the alternative of watching my 2005 DVD again and having a bit of a cry. For those rare non-UK readers, I’m focusing on people who are either qualified to play for England or are expected to be shortly, so if I don’t mention your favourite overseas player that’s probably the reason.
On the radar
Olly Stone: I’ve been trying to justify why I haven’t really mentioned Stone that much in these threads, and its largely because he feels like a known quantity. We know he gets high pace, swing and bounce, and we know he’s a test standard bowler when fit and firing. We also know he’s sadly not fit and firing as often as anyone would like, which is probably why he isn’t in the test squad right now. The last couple of rounds have shown him at fitness and on form, and at 32 fully knowing himself and his game. There’s very obviously something to offer England if he can sustain that.
Incidentally Henry Crocombe, much younger and but also a little fragile, got another fifer and has really kicked on for Sussex this season, while opposite him Craig Overton also continued to show the value he brings to Somerset. Sonny Baker got wickets again too and has a similar combination of pace and occasional wildness as Stone had when he was younger, and Naavya Sharma also looks like a strong talent.
Kasey Aldridge: Durham’s seam attack wouldn’t be out of place in a home test, and so is something of a cheat code in Div 2. So it’s notable that in the wickets column all of them were outshined by the 5 earned by Aldridge, who moved to Durham from Somerset and has continued to show both pace and movement. The 25 year old has been in a few lions squads without fully nailing it, but he bowls with rapidity and venom and can also bat to a reasonable standard. It might not make him really an allrounder though, and he very clearly isn’t Ben Stokes. George Balderson also gave a reminder of his talent with 4 wickets in the highly truncated game in Derby. Neither is likely to fill the Stokes shaped hole in the test squad, but both are good quality players.
Ben Kellaway: When Leics and Glammy came up from div 2 last year the hype candidates were Rehan Ahmed on the basis of his great all-round performance and Asa Tribe with some insane batting averages. Both have struggled to the harsher tests in div 1, and Kellaway might have overtaken both. Weirdly for a guy who came to prominence because of his bowl-with-both-arms gimmick, Kellaway is a fairly low key player who's main skills seem to be some very effective and well applied batting and tidy right arm offspin. Both have been used effectively this season, and while the likes of Rehan and James Coles may have higher ceilings in the long term, Kellaway seems much more secure in his game and role, and might be a proper challenger for a test look sooner or later.
Ben Foakes: If last week acted as a reminder that Jack Leach should have been England's test spinner this whole time, this round was all about Foakes. England's best keeper has somewhat unfairly managed to be so good that he no longer gets credit for keeping because everyone already knows he's so good at it, so instead he gets judged on the exceptionally rare minor errors and his batting. But his catch to dismiss Matt Critchley, keeping right up to the stumps against Matt Fisher, was extraordinary enough to break through the nonsense and remind us just how phenomenal he is. That he then hit a wonderfully composed 120* to save his team against a rampaging Harmer was merely the cherry on top. Like Leach, the days of Foakes in test whites seem to have passed, but he's a magnificent man and deserves more.
Waiting for the outcome of the investigation
Jonny Bairstow: Having celebrated the likes of Foakes and Leach we have to acknowledge that not every former test player is having an Indian summer. YJB will always be a personal favourite, but even I can see that the old magic is fading fast. Jonny's always had a bit of a static front pad, but post leg injury he's finding it increasingly hard to move either leg, and even his wrists and forearms can only do so much. The captaincy hasn't really helped him either, oscillating between extreme conservatism and surprise anti-orthodoxy without much coherence. At least he'll have years more with Yorkshire to see if he can re-conjure something.
Matt Fisher: Since I'm coming for my heroes we might as well take down Fish too. The good news for him is that he's stayed fit for two seasons now, and he's still getting England picks. The question has to be how much longer that continues, as Surrey seem to be flirting with relegation and Fish doesn't really seem to be providing them with much help to escape. It's been clear that Fisher had high talent from a young age, but he may have reached his ceiling.
Frontline spinners: I'm probably old fashioned but I'd still love to see an actual spinner in the test team rather than the Lawrence/Root/Bethell axis of part time. Guys like Rahul Chahar and Simon Harmer showed their value, but sadly neither is England qualified. Our incoming coach Fleming is noted to be an excellent user of spin both as captain and coach, and maybe he's got a plan already. But most of the candidates seem to be batters who do some part time stuff, like the guys mentioned above. Bashir has at least played for Derbs, but the test team don't seem convinced of their own selection, and it's not apparent who else might be coming in.
Will definitely play for England one day: Naavya Sharma, Eddie Jack, Ben Kellaway, Henry Crocombe, George Hill.
Nice to see them having fun: Ricardo Vasconcelos, Dean Elgar, James Bracey, Keaton Jennings, Tom Lammonby, Ben Foakes, Ethan Bamber, Daniel Bell-Drummond.
