Overton primed to enter the realm of Test cricket
IT IS fair to say if Danny Rose, the Tottenham footballer who grumbled earlier this season that he always has to look up his side’s new signings to discover who they are, was a cricketer he would have had to google George Garton.
Even those who follow cricket closely might not have known that the latest recruit to an already injury-hit Ashes tour is a promising left-arm bowler equipped with a bit of pace with just nine first-class appearances to his name.
Such is the dearth of options facing England at this early stage of the biggest tour of all they have been forced, with an injury to Jake Ball following Steven Finn’s premature departure, to look to a bowler earmarked for the future.
Trouble is, England’s future is now when they have to consider a list of absentees that includes Ben Stokes, Toby Roland-Jones, Mark Wood, Tom Helm and, for the next week or so at least, another important bowler in Ball.
Even Liam Plunkett, it appears, is nursing a niggle while playing in Bangladesh.
It should be stressed that Garton’s arrival in Townsville, where England head today to step up preparations for the first Test, is little more than glorified work experience and he should be free to rejoin the Lions in Brisbane next week.
England are hopeful that Ball, who yesterday ditched his crutches but is still wearing a protective boot on his damaged right ankle, will soon be back in action but he has to be a big doubt for a first Test that is now under two weeks away. At least they know that in Craig Overton, who had been competing with Ball for the chance to try to fill the enormous shoes left vacant by Stokes, they have a bowler who made decent strides in the win over a Cricket Australia XI. England needed less than half an hour yesterday to wrap up an emphatic warm-up victory at the Adelaide Oval, with Overton taking one of the three remaining wickets to fall and showing he has pace by striking Dan Fallins a nasty blow on the helmet.
The Somerset bowler ended with three for 15 off 11 overs and, with Chris Woakes and Jimmy Anderson being similarly productive, England at least know the bowlers who are still standing are coming to the boil at just the right time. It would be a huge surprise if Overton did not make his Test debut in the most hostile of environments at the Gabba but, with his well-documented anger problems now behind him, he insists he is ready for the task.
‘I’d like to think so but I’ve still got a bit of work to do,’ said Overton. ‘It’s still a work in progress. It’s just finding that rhythm over here and I’d prefer to be over-cooked than under-cooked going to Brisbane.’
So does he expect to play in the first Test?
‘You’re never quite sure, you just keep on doing your thing and try not to worry about it too much,’ said Overton. ‘I’m just making sure I bowl the best I can when I get a chance and hopefully that will be good enough. I’m confident it will be.’
If a bowling attack minus the rested Stuart Broad looked decent in admittedly helpful conditions with the pink ball under lights in Adelaide then the same cannot yet be said about England’s batting — and Australia know it.
England head to north Queensland today with much still to ponder. And praying they do not have to call up yet another fast bowler because the viable options are rapidly running out.
In the absence of Stokes, Jonny Bairstow will carry an extra burden in the middle-order engine room. The final Test in Sydney will be his 50th cap.
He said: ‘If I reach that milestone it will be a special, special day. It makes you think that you’ve been through some ups and downs but you know you’ve come through the other side.’
Bairstow’s new book, A Clear Blue Sky, is as much a tribute to his late father David, who took his own life when Jonny was just eight, and the story of his triumph over adversity as it is an autobiography.
‘It’s been remarkable,’ he said of the reaction to his book, serialised in The Mail on Sunday. ‘There have been so many people who have thanked me because it has enabled them to speak about their own situations. If this can help and stop them thinking in a negative way, that should be a good thing.’