Macgill: ‘Solid’ Critchley can play for England
FORMER Australian leg-spinner Stuart Macgill has backed Derbyshire all-rounder Matt Critchley to play international cricket.
Macgill, who played 44 Tests for his country and played for Nottinghamshire and Somerset during spells in England, has coached Critchley and a number of other English spinners at his New South Wales base in the last few years.
He likes what he sees of Critchley, who has just completed five years with Derbyshire since his debut at the start of the 2015 season.
“My guy that I really love at the moment is Matt Critchley,” Macgill told website Cricket Life Stories.
“He’s at Derby. I think he’s made three first-class hundreds already. This dude, six foot two, he can bowl. I can see him slotting into an international side because of what he can do with a bat in his hands and the ball. He’s a very, very solid player.”
An article reporting Macgill’s comments on the Wisden website suggests 23-yearold Critchley’s career figures “aren’t compelling”, with a first-class bowling average of 49.55, a batting average of 28.05 and only one five-wicket haul so far, albeit he also took 10 wickets in the match to bowl Derbyshire to victory over Northamptonshire at Chesterfield.
But what is also true is that Critchley’s figures are improving with each year.
He was also Derbyshire’s youngest century maker in 2015, also against Northamptonshire, and their youngest century-maker at Lords in 2018, while he has become a key part of their T20 strategy.