England’s Parkinson aiming for Ashes spot
Matt Parkinson is desperate to be the man who cures the England Test team’s “nervousness” of leg-spin and has not given up hope of forcing his way into the forthcoming Ashes series.
Parkinson was not named in the senior squad for the tour but there was the considerable consolation of a Lions call-up for the trip to Australia, as well as the chance to push for promotion.
He sent down three overs in a rain-shortened first day of an internal warm-up match and will be hoping for a better chance to press his case as preparations ramp up with a four-day clash next week. As well as opposition, the Lions are also there to provide genuine competition to the Test team and, with no wristspinner in Joe Root’s 17-strong party, Matt has everything to play for.
There are plenty of England fans who would be happy to see him retained ahead of the series opener at The Gabba. “I guess I was slightly gutted not to get into the Ashes squad, but Twitter was funny that day… it felt like I was pretty popular for a while on there,” he said.
“You do take it with a pinch of salt, but I think if I had been named in the squad there would have been a few cricket badgers pretty happy about it.
“I’m pleased to be out with the Lions but hopefully I can stay on. I’m not ruling it out and I think all of the lads would say the same. The door is open and if we perform well in these matches, score a hundred, take a five-for… who knows?
“Rooty has seen plenty of me because I bowled about 3,000 balls to him in the nets in India last winter. I’d like to show Joe and Spoons (head coach Chris Silverwood) that I’ve improved this year so they think ‘let’s keep him here’.”