Alastair Cook made a brisk and fluent 48 on Sunday in what will be the England Test captain’s last red-ball match before the Ashes series starts on 8 July.
A 14-man squad will fly out to Spain next week to take part in a pre-Ashes training session and Cook was one of three players from that group who were in action in the County Championship. His innings for Essex at Bristol included three glorious drives off one over before he was trapped lbw by the Gloucestershire medium-pacer Benny Howell.
This knock followed his solid 80 in Essex’s innings victory over Derbyshire last week and his return to county cricket has confirmed Cook’s recovery after a difficult year.
Moeen Ali may be more of a concern. England left him out of the one-day squad with the express intention that he try to get as many overs as possible in for Worcestershire.
While Steve Rhodes and Daryl Mitchell have done their best to make sure this happens, they also have had to balance England’s desires with their need to try to win matches, plus the fact they have a more than handy front-line spinner in Saeed Ajmal.
Following Worcestershire’s two-day surrender to Warwickshire last week, Ali has not been able to bowl as much as England would have liked. He bowled only six overs in that match and added a further 12 overs on Sunday against Middlesex at Uxbridge, where he went wicketless on what was not really a spinners’ day.
At the County Ground in Derby the left-arm seamer Mark Footitt added three more wickets to his season’s tally of 32 by taking three for 74 against Surrey.
The 29-year-old was a surprise inclusion in the Ashes training squad and it remains to be seen whether he is in the frame for inclusion in the final squad or whether England, knowing their batsmen will be facing a considerable amount of left-arm seam bowling come the Ashes, have included him as something of a net bowler.
Ian Bell was in action in the NatWest T20 Blast but made only six for the Birmingham Bears against Yorkshire at Edgbaston.
The vagaries of the county schedule means he will not have another opportunity to play first-class cricket. Three more of the 14-man training squad – Stuart Broad, Adam Lyth and Gary Ballance – will be in action starting Monday when Yorkshire take on Nottinghamshire at Headingley.
