Hameed’s latest failure leaves selectors with Test headache
Struggling opener goes cheaply again with Lions Pressure builds as rivals all make half-centuries
Haseeb Hameed’s run of poor form is presenting the England selectors with a major test of their loyalty after he made another single-figure score for the Lions yesterday.
Hameed was out for two in the second innings of the match against South Africa A while his rivals for a Test place all made half-centuries.
Hameed was out for a duck in the first innings and has not passed 50 in first-class cricket this summer. He has also not been selected in the Lions squad for their match against the full South Africa side next week, although that can be read two ways as it does give him a chance to play in the floodlit championship matches against the pink ball which are being used to prepare England players for the day-night Test later in the summer.
Hameed will be focused on more immediate challenges, such as making runs for Lancashire at Edgbaston next week, his final chance to find some form before the Test squad is announced next weekend.
England will be desperate for him to scrape together some sort of form and fluency. Hameed left India after three Tests last winter with his place in the side assured and England hopeful they had finally found a long-term partner for Alastair Cook after so many false starts by others. His second season has proved as tough a character examination as facing India’s spinners with the runs drying up as he works on his technique.
Time is running out with rivals circling for his place in the Test squad. Mark Stoneman continued his run of form with a second fifty of the match at Canterbury.
Hameed was out pushing at a ball in the channel outside off stump, an area of weakness exposed by seam bowlers this summer, and Stone- man enjoyed the luck of a man in form. He edged through vacant third slip on 16 and was then dropped on 20 and 33 before going on to make 86.
Keaton Jennings was caught at slip but not before making 71 to go with his 57 in the first innings and the fourth opener in the team, Nick Gubbins, hit 63 as the Lions set up their declaration.
South Africa A have been outclassed in this match and for most of the players apart from Hameed this has not been much of a challenge. By the close South Africa A were 29 for four with Jamie Overton running through the top order.
Jennings is one of three players in this match retained by the Lions for next week’s game. He will open with Sam Robson, of Middlesex, who is back in the Lions fold for the first time in two years.
Tom Westley was close to England selection last year and now he has made runs in the first division for Essex, has been called up for the Lions next week as the selectors look at candidates for a potential vacancy in the Test team at five. Liam Livingstone impressed Andy Flower, the Lions coach, with runs in Sri Lanka in the winter and is not just seen as a white-ball batsman by England.
Gary Ballance was named as captain of the England Lions at Worcester, a boost to his chances of a Test recall although he will also play two days of Yorkshire’s championship match against Surrey before heading to New Road after his county complained to the England and Wales Cricket Board.
“It’s arguable whether Gary should have to prove himself in a Lions game,” said Yorkshire director of cricket Martyn Moxon. “But we wish him well and hope that he does enough to convince the selectors that he’s ready to resume his Test career.”
Mason Crane’s call-up to the Lions will allow him to work with Saqlain Mushtaq, who has joined the coaching set-up on a two-year consultancy deal.