Parkinson grilled on debut after dash from barbecue
Leg-spinner called away from home cooking as concussion substitute struggles to make inroads on unhelpful pitch
No wonder that, after Matt Parkinson bowled his first delivery in Test cricket, his face broke into a grin. Just by bowling one ball, after all, he had improved on the past two English leg-spinners selected at Lord’s.
If you are an English leg-spinner at Lord’s, the first thing you have got to do is bowl. That was beyond Chris Schofield and Adil Rashid, the last two specialist leg-spinners picked here: neither bowled a single ball during their Test appearances at Lord’s, in 2000 and 2018. The last specialist leg-spinner to bowl here for England was Ian Salisbury 26 years ago.
While Schofield and Rashid were picked and did not bowl, Parkinson was not picked but did bowl. On day one, Parkinson was preparing to host a barbecue at home when his phone rang, telling him to get to Lord’s to replace Jack Leach, who was withdrawn on day one with suspected concussion. In lieu of his barbecue, Parkinson had to make do with Keele services, as he hared down from Manchester to London.
“I’m sure it’s been a big shock for him. He was in his back garden on Thursday afternoon,” was the assessment of Paul Collingwood, the England assistant coach.
Had he chosen a ground and conditions to become England’s 705th Test cricketer, Parkinson would surely not have picked Lord’s in early June. The drier surfaces in the Caribbean, during the first two Tests in March, would have been far preferable. Or, for that matter, the turning wickets in Sri Lanka and
India last winter. But after spending 15 Tests and five tours with the England squad, yet getting no closer to playing than wheeling away in his England training top a few strips away from the wicket used in the match, Parkinson was hardly in a position to be picky about where his debut came.
Much of the time that Parkinson has been marooned on the fringes of the Test squad has been spent worrying about whether he is too slow for the five-day game. He is unusually slow for a leg-spinner, bowling at an average of only 45 miles per hour: the slowest of any specialist leg-spinner today. While he has tried to become a little quicker, Parkinson has also acknowledged that he can only reinvent himself so much; essentially, he has to work with what he has, and trust that it is enough.
“If I do play Test cricket, I might have to go to the top end of the speed I can bowl to be successful, but I’d also like to be the only spinner that bowls at the pace I do who has done well – then I’d be breaking the mould,” he has said.
When he came on for his first bowl in Test cricket at 3pm on the second day at Lord’s, Parkinson had already made a positive contribution on his unexpected Test debut: straight-driving a four off Tim Southee during his first-innings eight, and then saving a boundary with a full-length dive at fine leg. He began bowling with a pleasing legbreak, patted back respectfully by Tom Blundell.
Both Blundell and Daryl Mitchell swiftly moved to a different mode, ostentatiously trying to use their feet to attack Parkinson. Perhaps this contributed to the Lancashire bowler over-pitching, delivering two full tosses that were bunted away for boundaries – and a couple more when Parkinson was lucky to escape the same result.
More concerning, perhaps, was
Mccullum might be inclined to make good on trying to entice Rashid out of Test retirement
the ease that New Zealand’s pair had when playing Parkinson off the back foot: even when the ball spun notably, Blundell and Mitchell had enough time to adjust.
Preventing batsmen either charging down the pitch or rocking back to take advantage of his lack of pace looms as the biggest challenge of Parkinson’s Test career. Since 2006, when ball-tracking began, no specialist leg-spinner has bowled as slowly as Parkinson did during his 14 overs at Lord’s.
Parkinson was not helped by the pitch, the conditions or his end – his first nine overs were all from the Pavilion End, rather than the Nursery End, traditionally favoured by leg-spinners because the slope can assist bowlers to generate more turn. But Parkinson still showed a temperament that suggests a man who relishes the fight and offers promising turn, especially considering how unforeseen his debut was.
And yet, for all the challenges he faced, this might also have been a performance to make Brendon Mccullum more inclined to make good on trying to entice Adil Rashid out of Test retirement. With a far better googly and more speed, Rashid is a far more rounded legspinner than Parkinson. Yet, given the difficulties inherent in bowling leg spin, this is little surprise: Parkinson is only 25, nine years Rashid’s junior.