Injuries and professional sport go hand in hand, we are well versed in the lengthy injury list of England fast bowlers. The saddest one for me was Saqib, he waited too long for a test debut, but looked a real player when he got his chance.
On that same tour of the Caribbean Dan Lawrence looked to be coming of age. 91 and 41 in the second test came in the exact style and selfless way that Stokes and McCullum endorse. He looked to be moving better in the field and had the air of a man who felt he belonged.
It was not a stellar series, but there was enough here to suggest that he was here to stay batting at no4 with Root moving up to no3. Enter 2022 summer and he started slowly before registering a county championship 100 and tearing his hamstring. The injury ruled him out of the first tests of the summer and England soon after confirmed that Pope, Root, Bairstow, Stokes were their no3-6 in that order.
I wondered at the time who’d have missed out if Lawrence was fit? Time waits for no one, the middle order is secure and Harry Brook has emerged to bang the door down as the man in waiting (103* for the Lions as I type). Yet Lawrence himself has scored 97 in this same match and must be in the frame?
The tricky part here is that it is the openers who look most vulnerable, and neither Brook nor Lawrence are themselves openers … yet!
On the subject of openers, Tom Haines finished the 2021 season with 1176 runs at 47.06 including 3 centuries. He was the leading run scorer in the county championship, opening the batting, and playing in a relatively weak team … but somehow did not even make the England Lions squad last winter?
He was name checked by Rob Key when appointed the MD, and reeled off 243 runs in one innings in April 2022. I am not certain that the captaincy is helpful for his overall career (not that he is not capable). He was another player I’d love to have seen line up alongside Brook and Lawrence in the Lions team but the fickle fate of injury intervened, a broken hand suffered on 13th July ruled him out for 5-6 weeks.
Another player to captain his side at a very young age, and bowl handy medium pace is Tom Abell. Tom is now aged 28 and has been excellent at no3. He has accumulated over 700 runs at an average of 50+ with 3 centuries so far this season. Perhaps at 28 his time has gone? He seems like someone with a lot to offer, and was a likely Lions captain until … yep you guessed it, a hamstring tear suffered recently against Essex. *Interesting too that Nick Gubbins and Daniel bell-Drummond, both also age 28 and like Abell former openers, seem to be thriving at no3
With Tom Abell unable to play, I fully expected Sam Hain to be in the middle order. Sam turned 27 last month, he has 954 runs at an average of 73 so far this season including 3 centuries. He is not injured, and is one of the best batsmen in the country, not just statistically but in terms of both technique and temperament. He first burst onto the scene in 2014 as a 19 year-old and yet we still really know nothing of him as a potential test plater.