Tom faces his Ashes D-Day
AT HEADINGLEY TOM WESTLEY knows he still has a significant amount of work to do if he is to establish himself in England’s Test set-up.
And if he needed a better illustration of the ground still to cover, it came on a shopping trip with Alastair Cook before the first Test against West Indies in Birmingham.
“I was with Cooky just looking for some trainers and a guy pulled him to one side and asked for a selfie,” he said. “One of his friends was like, ‘Do you want him in it?’ pointing at me, and the guy was like, ‘No, no, it’s just his mate’. So I just stood there.”
The endearingly selfdeprecating anecdote sums up Westley’s position well given he and Cook have history together with Essex but wildly differing international experience.
Cook is four years older than his team-mate at 32 but has the sort of numbers of which Westley could only dream of as England’s leading runscorer and century-maker. Yet if Westley’s statistics pale in comparison, a halfcentury and a couple of 20s against South Africa in the first two of his three Tests has put him one good knock away from a ticket to greater fame.
If he can do that here in Leeds this weekend, his Ashes place as England’s No3 could be as good as booked.
“If I play this next game and get a good start and kick on then my time will come, as it will for other players in the changing room,” said Westley.
“I took a lot of confidence from that debut 50. Morne Morkel bowled fantastically well throughout that series and he is part of one of the best bowling attacks in the world.
“So I can take a lot of confidence from scoring runs – not big runs, but if you can occupy the crease for that length of time, then hopefully in the future I can do that against other attacks.
“I haven’t felt completely out of my depth but have been a bit gutted that I didn’t capitalise on some good situations.”
Westley insists his position, with his name no more than pencilled on the squad sheet, makes it easier for him to stop looking towards the winter.
“I am focusing on the here and now because I need to score runs,” he said. “If I don’t then I won’t achieve that childhood dream of playing in the Ashes.”
Westley appears to have a good chance of making Brisbane. England like what they have seen of him so far and he could not pick better opposition than West Indies, particularly given they look set to stick with the same line-up here as the one humiliated in the first Test.
Westley also seems a wellgrounded individual, who despite questions about his technique – his hands tend to close his bat face excessively at times – is confident enough to stick to what he knows. “I’m not going to change my entire game plan because I’m playing Test cricket,” he said. “You have to be yourself.”
One fear he has is how his mother, Mags, might react if he does get called up.
“I spoke to mum on the phone about hopefully getting selected for the third Test at Lord’s and she just started crying,” he said. “She could not speak back to me. I thought the signal had gone.
“Growing up that’s what she envisaged for me as her son: playing at Lord’s. So I can’t even bring up the Ashes – it would be times that by 10.” ●INVESTEC are the title sponsor of Test-match cricket in England. For Out of the Ordinary thinking visit investec.com/cricket AB DE VILLIERS has stepped down as South Africa’s one-day captain but is making himself available for international selection in all three formats. The 33-year-old, captain for six years, says it is “time for someone else to take the ODI side forward”. He missed South Africa’s Test series defeat in England because he “needed a bit of time away from the game”. But De Villiers, left, says he feels “refreshed and revived”. He defended himself from accusations he has been picking and choosing when to play. “That has never been true. Playing for South Africa is, and will always be, the greatest privilege of my life,” he said.