It took failure to liberate me but now I’m enjoying cricket again
AT the Kia Oval last Saturday, Nick Gubbins drove his first ball sweetly through the covers for four and did not look back.
Batting on every day of Middlesex’s win over Surrey, he scored 192 and 60. That made Middlesex unlikely leaders of the Bob Willis Trophy South Group and put Gubbins 55 clear at the top the run-scoring charts after round one. Little wonder he cannot wait to face Hampshire at Radlett tomorrow.
Even in a performance like that, cricket provided a reminder of its inherent cruelness, as Gubbins’s slapstick second-innings dismissal — bowled falling over attempting a reverse sweep off spinner Daniel Moriarty — went viral.
“I gambled on what he would bowl very early and ended up looking a bit silly,” he laughs. “I was able to see the funny side by the end of the day, when we had won. All’s well that end’s well, I guess.”
Indeed. For Gubbins and Middlesex, such a storming opening victory was that bit sweeter because of recent tribulations.
“Every batter on the county circuit wants to start with a hundred,” he says. “The memories of struggles in seasons past means that when you do get in, you try to make it an absolute monster.”
No player has been epitomised Middlesex’s fortunes like Gubbins in recent years. In 2016, he was the cornerstone of their batting, scoring four centuries in his 1,409 runs as they won a first title in 23 years.
That took him close to a Test cap. He was rooming with Keaton Jennings in Dubai on a Lions tour when Jennings was chosen ahead of him to replace the injured Haseeb Hameed in India in December 2016, and scored a century on debut.
Since 2016, things have not gone quite as swimmingly. In 30 Championship games, Gubbins has made two centuries, and his three seasons’ averages are 24, 34 and 22. He remained in the Lions set-up until the winter of 2018-19 but last September realised something had to change. “I sat down at the end of last summer and realised where I was,” he says. “I needed a winter away, to get back enjoying cricket and batting.
“There are times when I have delved too deep, being too serious about my cricket. It’s almost mattered too much.”
At Sydney Cricket Club, Gubbins got just what he was after. “I was part of a successful side, we won the national competition, and I was playing hardnosed cricket with great blokes,” he says.
“That liberated me. I got to hear different voices on my game and lived in a different place. I worked hard on my strengths, whereas in recent years I’d been working on weaknesses. I looked at what I’m good at, and making them even better. I appreciate now that while cricket’s great, it’s not the be-all and endall. This winter helped me enjoy cricket.”
Gubbins, now 26 and batting No3, believes Middlesex has not been a happier dressing room since 2016. Many of that team have moved on, leaving himself and Stevie Eskinazi — now captain after Dawid Malan left and Peter Handscomb’s contract was delayed due to the pandemic — as senior players.
“We are a happy group,” he said. “The Bob Willis Trophy is exactly what we need. It’s a chance to win a trophy and be the top team in the country.
“Some negativity does come with relegation and under-performance, but this feels like a really fresh squad with a good mix of young and old and new coaches. We want to play attacking cricket and last week was a blueprint for that.”
That focus means that, unlike a couple of years ago, Gubbins is not thinking about where he is in the England pecking order. He says: “My focus is on standing up as a senior batter and helping us win games. I am batting better than ever and know my game. It’s taken failure to find that, but I’m comfortable with that.”
Last summer I realised that I needed a winter away... I appreciate now that cricket is not the be-all and end-all