Atherton: Hameed will beat slump

MIKE Atherton believes Haseeb Hameed will overcome his current slump and force his way back into the England Test side.

Since bursting on to the international scene during the tour to India in the winter of 2016, the Lancashire opener has had a troubled time on the pitch.

Last season he scored just 520 first-class runs, with only three halfcenturies, and hasn’t reached three figures in the County Championship for two years. It saw the 21-year-old dropped from Lancashire’s Championship side after another poor start to this campaign, although was reinstated one match later batting at No.3.

In total he has scored 35 runs in six innings this season, with an average of 5.8, but returned to some form by scoring a century for both Lancashire seconds and his club side Formby.

When he made two battling half-centuries in his first three Tests – one with a broken finger – he was tipped to be an England opener for the next 10 years.

However, he is now well down the pecking order in terms of the Test side.

But former Lancashire and England opener Atherton believes Hameed is simply too talented to not play Test cricket again.

“I hope he comes back, as a young Lancashire opener I would clearly feel an affinity for him,” the former England captain said. “There is no way you can play as he played two years ago in India and that season beforehand for Lancashire and not have a serious future as a top-class player.

“So I have no doubt he will come again and score loads of runs.

“It has been interesting to watch him. He has obviously made adjustments to his game and he is a young man searching for the method that works for him. And I think all cricketers go through that at various stages and to various degrees.

“When you are in a bit of a trough and in a run of poor form you start tinkering and searching for something to make it right, but in the end you have to try and trust your method and trust your talent and you can’t tinker too much, it becomes problematic then.

“My only advice to Haseeb would be to try and put all the talk about England out of his mind.

“That will come on the back of scoring runs for Lancashire. And if he can get back to doing that as part of a successful Lancashire side, it would be fantastic for him and England will come calling.”

And Atherton, who scored just short of 10,000 first-class runs for Lancashire, says Hameed and other England batsmen aren’t helped by the schedule.

“It is very difficult for young openers now,” he said. “I am glad I played in the era I played in because we would have just been getting our season started now in terms of the Championship and you would then have that rhythm of playing throughout the season and playing four-day cricket at the best time of the year when the sun is out and the pitches are a bit flatter. So it is very, very difficult now for young batsmen with the opening five games of the Championship in April and early May, and another five games at the back end of the season. It’s tough. So I have a lot of sympathy for Haseeb and a lot of other young openers around.”

‘He is a young man searching for the method that works for him’