Devon creams pale England in whites
The debut double-ton success of Black Caps star opening batsman Devon Conway has England questioning their whole selection process.
While Friday night’s washout at Lord’s had the host country’s scribes scratching around to fill their column centimetres, The Times’ Simon Wilde launched into England’s rookie lineup under the headline ‘‘Seasoned Conway poses questions over England faith in youth’’.
‘‘There is a particularly anaemic look to England’s batting line-up in this test match,’’ he started, before pointing out that proven test skipper Joe Root was surrounded by six batsmen with a combined 81 test caps between them, and ‘‘five of these six players are aged 25 or younger’’. In a particularly telling stat that pointed to England’s inexperience, mullet-bedecked New Zealand allrounder Colin de Grandhomme has a higher batting average than all bar Root in an England lineup that was the most youthful to take the field in their 528 home tests. For reference, de Grandhomme has the eighth-highest average in the Black Caps.
‘‘There are extenuating circumstances,’’ Wilde went on. ‘‘Ben Stokes is injured and Jos Buttler is resting after his stint at the Indian Premier League — both would feature in England’s strongest team. Ben Foakes, too, would have played if fit.’’
But the cheap early wickets of Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley have even hardened England observers wondering about this approach.
‘‘England’s approach is an interesting one. They have long been enamoured with scouting reports, developmental squads, training camps and pathways, and the recent necessity for large groups of players training together in biosecure bubbles has meant that good impressions in the nets have come to mean as much as, if not more than, the old-fashioned virtues of performing in county cricket.
‘‘This is largely why Pope was chosen for his first test at 20, Root and Crawley at 21, Lawrence at 23, and Sibley and James Bracey at 24. Only Burns, of this latest crop, broke into the England side through years served in county cricket, his debut coming after a championship season in which he scored 1400 runs at 60 and led Surrey to the title.
The way he batted with Root in an unbroken stand of 93 suggested there may still be worth in this type of education.
‘‘It is interesting to contrast England’s fast-track methods with the means by which Devon Conway arrived at test cricket.
‘‘His decision to leave South Africa and spend three years qualifying for New Zealand meant he had time to build a formidable body of work in domestic cricket. By the time he got his chance this week, aged 29, he was ready.’’
And with a cool 200 under his belt from that first innings, he looks ready for more at Lord’s and beyond.