Vince ready to take advantage as he is finally given chance to make his mark

JAMES VINCE will make his World Cup debut against Afghanistan in a tournament that could have passed him by.

Not because he is not good enough to open alongside Jonny Bairstow, but because it has taken a bizarre combination of form, fitness and drugs to get him here.

It is a lack of the first two for Joe Denly and Jason Roy (right) and an excess of the third for Alex Hales that brought Vince to the fore and gave him the chance to be an unexpected World Cup hero.

Skipper Eoin Morgan’s back spasm has cleared up enough for him to be available at Old Trafford, but Roy’s hamstring tear has ruled him out of the next two matches to give Vince his shot.

But the question as to whether or not the 28-year-old can make the most of his opportunity remains a big one.

Ask anyone who has watched him bat and they will tell you how talented he is.

Mirror Sport columnist Ben Stokes has moved through the England age groups with Vince and said: “He is so pleasing on the eye.

“He makes batting look so easy and having played a lot of cricket with Vincey over a long period of time I just love watching him bat.

“I don’t think he realises sometimes just how good he is.”

The problem with Vince’s innings is that, at the highest level, they do not tend to last long enough. He has batted across the three formats for England 38 times and is yet to score a century. An 83 in the opening Ashes Test in Brisbane in 2017 remains his highest score.

He has three other 50s and a high score in ODI cricket of just 51, made against Sri Lanka in Cardiff, are not numbers to get excited about.

But there is more to Vince’s inclusion than stats. The way he bats is in keeping with England’s white-ball style of the last four years.

He is carefree at the crease and in the two innings he had against Pakistan before the World Cup his scores of 43 and 33 set England on their way to two victories.

Morgan said: “James has been around the squad a long time. He has not had a prolonged opportunity given the success of the batting line-up, but his performances at Hampshire have been outstanding this summer.

“Hopefully he can take this oppor tunity that has presented itself.”

If it was just about averages then Hales would be making his World Cup bow, but instead he continues to twiddle his fingers as he waits for the county T20 Blast to start.

Hales burned his bridges with England ahead of the tournament and even though Morgan refused to rule out a return should Roy fail to make a recovery, he admitted the “stigma” around the Notts batsman does him no favours.

“We’re giving Jason the best chance to get back,” added Morgan. “If national selector Ed Smith felt Alex was the best option, we’d have to assess how that would sit in the changing room and the stigma it would bring.”