We need openers who enjoy thrill of a duel
THE giant fast bowler thundered in, full of brooding menace. The dazzling batsman stood waiting with a fierce intensity of purpose. The ball was pitched short and crunched against the helmet of the superstar at the crease, splitting open a crack in his protective head guard.
Brian Lara didn’t flinch – instead staring back in defiance at the bowler, his magnificent West Indies compatriot Curtly Ambrose.
It may have been just a match in the dear old County Championship, but this was cricket at its most thrilling, most daunting and most captivating.
Lara’s duel with Ambrose remains vivid in the memory today, equal to any of the great passages of play I have seen in the Ashes or a World Cup. Its brilliance has not dimmed a quarter of a century later.
The County Ground, June 1994, Northants against Warwickshire, when Lara was in the middle of his incredible purple patch – centuries in almost every match, that included the then-world record 375 Test innings and the first-class all-time best of 501.
Ambrose had never captured
Lara’s wicket in his career and wanted the scalp with an almost murderous passion. The batsman resisted.
On that sunny afternoon Lara scored 197 at an incredible run-a-ball pace. He chiselled just 12 runs in 45 deliveries against Ambrose.
Why recall this? Well, it came to mind contemplating the woes of England’s batting, forever collapsing meekly as they lost the current Test series in the West Indies in a mere seven days of play.
Talk about Brian Lara and everyone thinks of sublime boundaries carved every which way by one of the finest attacking batsman in the history of cricket.
My mind goes to Northampton – where a man was fighting alone to survive, because it was all he could do in that moment.
Willpower rather than whiplash shots won the battle which truly mattered.
Ambrose couldn’t get him out. Lara was eventually caught at deep fine leg going for his double century when hooking a bouncer from Paul Taylor, the left-arm seamer who played a couple of Test matches for England in the early 1990s.
Taylor still works in cricket today, a key figure behind the scenes at Surrey, the county which more than any other is producing players for England. He remembers an U10s participation day where a kid called Rory Burns showed up. He has known Sam Curran since he was a baby, having been a Northants team-mate of father Kevin.
What does he think about the struggles of England to find batsmen who will graft for their wickets? “It’s certainly not a lack of talent,” says Taylor. “We have fantastic quality in this country, but maybe the culture of cricket has changed with the T20 game.
“The mindset is different now, wanting to score off every ball rather than to bat all day and into the next.
“Perhaps we are lacking a bit technically at the highest level. I think Rory Burns is one of those who can bat all day, and I think he will succeed in Test cricket.
“What we have to do is find more batsmen with his mentality, the approach that Alastair Cook had.” It will not be so easy.
When I was involved with managing junior county cricket teams, we would do a small test at the start of winter training, asking players which position in the batting order they would choose for preference.
Almost all said five or six. A few were bold enough for No4. Openers were a scarcity. That’s too tough in the modern culture.
It doesn’t surprise me that England captain Joe Root has been reluctant to move up from No4 to No3, even though head coach Trevor Bayliss believes it best for the team.
Changing mentality is no overnight job; persuading young cricketers of the thrill of the duel.
Would they respond to watching film of Lara v Ambrose, if the footage exists?
Or looking at the famous, fabulous duel of Mike Atherton against Allan Donald in 1998 at Trent Bridge – and the equally mesmerising Atherton battle against Ambrose and Courtney Walsh at Lord’s in June 2000?
To my mind, there is nothing more captivating in cricket than the skill, courage and character on show then.
It is certainly superior to a barrage of easy sixes in T20 cricket or rampant run-scoring on placid pitches in a 50-over one-day international. For England, right now, the hope must be that Burns turns promise into sustained performance – and that someone else can also emerge in time for the Ashes this summer.
Another short-term scenario still exists. It is that Cook scores a mountain of runs in county cricket and can be tempted to return and take on the Aussies for one final time.
He has insisted he will not do so after stepping away last summer. But, reading an interview the other day, is there a tiny crack of light shining through?
“You can never say never on anything, but I can pretty much say never on this,” said Cook. “Like anything you don’t quite know, but at the moment being out of the side has made me a far better player than I ever was.”
Cook is too modest here. He has been one of the very greats like Lara – batsmen beyond all else of immense willpower, bravery and cussed determination to succeed.
‘At the moment’ he is also still the best we have.