England Lions: We check on their summer progress
Rob Johnston analyses the progress of Andy Flower’s England Lions throughout the summer
England’s performances in the current one-day series against Pakistan have confirmed what they have become over the past 18 months: a strong, balanced and at times dominating one-day force. But despite a commanding summer for Eoin Morgan’s men in white-ball cricket, it is the England Lions who have displayed this season’s most impressive one-day performances by an England side.
Whilst the counties play a vital role in the development of international-class players, the Lions programme aims to bridge the gap between county cricket and the international game, providing the most talented players outside the senior squads with valuable experience in an England environment and allowing opportunities to impress the national selectors.
That they did in the 50-over Tri-Series featuring Pakistan ‘A’ and Sri Lanka ‘A’ in July. The Lions won all four of their games, but it was not just the victories, though important, that were impressive. The standard of their play was high and there were some truly outstanding performances by the batsmen in particular.
In their final game against Sri Lanka ‘A’, the Lions made 425-1 from their 50 overs, with Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond scoring an unbeaten 171 and Northants’ Ben Duckett making 220 not out.
There were also three other scores over 150 in the series: Dawid Malan, Sam Billings and Duckett again.
These performances were no fluke, but rather evidence of the success of the Lions programme which has focused on one-day cricket for the past year. They spent most of last winter in the UAE honing their one-day skills with a training camp before Christmas and a series of 50-over and T20 games against Pakistan ‘A’ in the New Year.
“There was some absolutely outstanding one-day batting in that [home] series,” says Andy Flower, head coach of the Lions. “If we had put some of our better national cricketers in there, they couldn’t have done much better than the young Lions.
“We provide experiences that will allow our young players to develop so that they will be better ready to make their debut for England and do well once they play. The [winter] one-day focus was valuable in giving these guys the opportunity to really work on their white-ball skills.”
England’s director of cricket Andrew Strauss has strong input into the Lions programme and the recent one-day focus should therefore be no surprise. Strauss’ determination to put right the long list of successive England failures in global one-day tournaments has placed limited overs cricket within the ECB on the same footing as the Test game.
“A few years ago, the Lions squad would tend to do their training camps in whatever country England were playing in during the winter,” says Flower.“We’ve gone away from that slightly now in consultation with Andrew Strauss, almost looking a little further ahead for the challenges of a couple of years’ time.”
With that eye on the future, the decision
to focus on one-day cricket with the Lions last winter seems sensible with a Champions Trophy in England next season and a home World Cup in 2019 coming up. It is likely several Lions graduates will be involved in these tournaments, and the very specific one-day work over the past year will stand them in good stead.
Flower believes the Lions experience offers a range of development opportunities: “The main purpose of the training camps and the competitive series is to provide some experiences that will help these guys grow their skills and grow their understanding of their skills, grow their understanding of themselves, too, learn to play in different conditions and be successful in different conditions, learn to play under the scrutiny of selections and selectors, and also learn to tour.”
Of this year’s Lions players, several have already made a mark. Hampshire’s spin bowling all-rounder Liam Dawson impressed the Lions coaches so much last winter, he found himself in England’s World T20 squad. Jake Ball, Billings and Malan have all been in senior England squads this summer, and there are plenty of others who played in the recent tri-series, such as Duckett, who are close.
Flower is honest about the challenges facing England in the longer forms of the game, though.
“It [the white-ball focus] did mean that we hadn’t given them any red ball exposure. In the Test side we know there are a couple of positions up for serious debate in the selections for the winter and in a way, we don’t have the in-depth knowledge that we want because we haven’t exposed these young guys to any red-ball cricket over the last year to 18 months at Lions level.”
With several England Lions graduates such as James Vince, Sam Robson and Adam Lyth struggling to cement their spot when recently promoted to the Test side, questions arise as to the quality of the structure in place to develop England’s future Test players. The struggles of Vince and others prove the inherent difficulty of any development programme: you never truly know how players will fare until they move up to senior level. The Lions programme is designed to thoroughly prepare players for the step up but ultimately it is down to them to perform.
Certainly players such as James Taylor who have been through the programme speak highly of it, and whilst some may not make it, others such as Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood, both of whom played on the last Lions red-ball tour, have proved to be fine Test players.
But it is important that the programme constantly evolves. The Lions have not played a first-class match since their tour to South Africa in January 2015, although there are plans to cover both one-day and longer form cricket this winter, in part to ensure the selectors have proven options should there be changes in the Test team.
There is the possibility of a three-day game against Afghanistan during the pre-Christmas training camp in the UAE, and the Lions will then embark on a red-ball tour of Sri Lanka in the New Year.
“We do take into account England’s needs,” says Flower. “So for instance on the opening batting front, I would imagine this winter there would be a focus on taking at least three openers with us. [Alastair] Cook’s opening partner hasn’t been nailed down for quite some time so we want to provide the opportunity for some opening batsmen to develop, but also demonstrate to the selectors that they can hack it at a higher level.
“I believe the investment into this level is really important. The financial investment, the investment of time and energy and thought. When you have reasonable performances against some strong ‘A’ sides, or indeed play for the Lions against a touring side, and do well, they are incredible boosts of self-belief that are available. That belief that you can do well at international cricket and that you belong is really important for your chances of success.”
The Lions programme has undoubtedly been successful at adding greater depth to the pool of players that James Whitaker and his selection panel have to choose from in one-day cricket, but there are still questions to be answered in the Test arena. Those answers may yet be found on this winter’s Lions tour.
With several graduates struggling to cement their place at Test level, questions arise as to the structure in place for red-ball cricket