The last first-class match to be officially called a “Test trial” was a three-day affair in Bristol between England and “The Rest” in 1976 which, according to Wisden, was “very ordinary” until Derek Underwood and Geoff Cope spun out the hopefuls for 48 in the fourth innings – the lowest score witnessed that season – to win by 127 runs.
Dennis Amiss, playing only four days after his head was split open by a Michael Holding bouncer while batting for the MCC against West Indies, would make a duck in England’s first innings and an unbeaten century in the second, only for concerns over his handling of the quicks to lead to an uncapped Mike Brearley, captain of The Rest, being preferred as opener in the first Test the following week.
The most significant knock played while the Test trial was going on would instead come down the road at Taunton, where 128 runs across two innings against Clive Lloyd’s tourists earned Somerset’s captain Brian Close a Test recall at the age of 45 and the somewhat legendary peppering that would follow.
With only Brearley earning an immediate call-up from The Rest – not through any significant number of runs in the match – and Cope unselected all summer despite his five-wicket haul for England, it is hard to discern much value from the Test trial at all and, bar a couple of England A versus The Rest matches in the 1990s, the contrived fixture has not resurfaced since.
Forty years on and the match starting on Sunday between Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire at Trent Bridge is perhaps as close as you will get to its modern-day equivalent, with international players aplenty, the Sky cameras in place and the selectors James Whitaker and Mick Newell, as well as England’s assistant coach, Paul Farbrace, watching closely.
There a bit to ponder too, with up to three batting spots still being discussed before the first Test against Sri Lanka starts at Headingley on 19 May. Towards the end of the next round of fixtures, after the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, returns from Australia and takes in two days of county cricket himself, the panel meet at Lord’s to pick their squad.
This fourth round of the County Championship therefore represents the last full match in which players can state their case and while among a possible 15 internationals on show in the game at Nottingham are Test shoo-ins Joe Root, making a rare appearance for Yorkshire, and Stuart Broad, in his second game of the season for the home side, others are scrambling for position in the pecking order.
One such man is Alex Hales, England’s established limited-overs opener who is currently clinging on to the revolving door that has become the role of Alastair Cook’s partner in the Test side, with his first four caps against South Africa during the winter returning just one half-century and an average of 17 to leave a question mark next to his name.
The 27-year-old, whose career-best 236 came in the corresponding match last summer, chose to sit out Nottinghamshire’s first two matches this season in order to rest after a long international winter across all three formats, despite the underwhelming case made in that historic 2-1 series win over the Proteas after Christmas. Newell, also his director of cricket at Trent Bridge, hopes this gamble pays off.
“I didn’t have a problem with him stopping for a few weeks,” said Newell. “There will be a lot of eyes on him against a very good Yorkshire bowling attack but it’s a chance for him to remind people how good a four-day player he is – that’s how I’m hoping he’ll look at it.
“There’s no doubt he’s played enough international cricket in three formats to know that he’s got the temperament – he doesn’t suffer from nerves or shy away from it. But Test cricket is still the ultimate test for him, given the success he has had in white-ball cricket.”
Adam Lyth, who Hales ultimately replaced in the Test side, can also offer a reminder of his talents, while his Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance, who similarly earned his last Test cap during the 2015 Ashes, is another hoping to catch the eye with at least one middle order place opening up through the enforced retirement of James Taylor due to a heart condition.
The battle for Ballance’s previous place as England No3 could be being played out elsewhere, however. In Middlesex’s game away to Hampshire the current incumbent, Nick Compton, will come up against James Vince, the home captain whose stock among selection circles is very much on the rise.
If it is hard to look beyond Broad, James Anderson and Steven Finn as the three seam bowlers to face Sri Lanka, the question of who supports them in the squad remains a talking point and at least two quicks on show at Trent Bridge – Jake Ball of Notts and Yorkshire’s Liam Plunkett – will want to impress. The uncapped Ball is certainly in the selectors’ thoughts this year after he earned a strong report card from the Lions management over the winter and picked up 12 wickets against Surrey and Lancashire so far in his side’s campaign; Sky’s speed gun will now show how close the 25-year-old is to bowling at international pace.
“Jake is a growing force, a coming guy,” said Newell. “If he does well here there’s no reason he won’t be spoken about. It’s a great chance for him in this game, on TV and with the selectors here. Can he make an impression? It’s certainly an opportunity to.”
With Ryan Sidebottom missing through an ankle injury, Yorkshire will give a debut to his fellow left-armer David Willey, whose signing from Northamptonshire over the winter was prompted by a desire to play Test cricket. Behind the stumps, meanwhile, will be England’s past and present in the Nottinghamshire captain, Chris Read, and Jonny Bairstow.
Spin-bowling all-rounders Samit Patel and Adil Rashid won Test caps as recently as last November, while a further international flavour is added by Nottinghamshire’s Australian seamer Jackson Bird, the former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor, plus left-armer Harry Gurney and batsman Michael Lumb, both of whom have been capped by England in limited overs cricket.
The latter’s father, Yorkshire batsman Richard Lumb, was one of “The Rest” in 1976. On Sunday, both at Trent Bridge and in the seven other County Championship games that get under way, England hopefuls will be on trial once more.
