Warwickshire’s No8, Keith Barker, contributed an important innings of 81 on the third day of the County Championship match at Lord’s on Wednesday. It wasn’t quite as imperious as Jonathan Trott’s double century but the left-hander displayed a sound technique and then made hay when the part-time Middlesex bowlers Adam Voges and Dawid Malan were brought into the attack – bringing up his half-century with a straight six off the former – shortly before the second new ball. After he had backed away and cut Steven Finn as if for fun, his innings was ended when Tim Murtagh found some swing in to the pads.
It has been a fine start to the season for Barker, who chipped in with two wickets in a testing new-ball spell late in the day. In the opening game against Hampshire, he picked up a five-for and scored a handy unbeaten 21. At 29, an England (or West Indies) call is not likely but Barker is proving himself to be a more-than-useful county cricketer.
A wider trend may be at work here, though. The England and Wales Cricket Board is experimenting with a new way of starting championship matches. The captain of the visiting side has the option of bowling first – if they decide not to, the usual coin toss will take place.
The idea is to encourage the use of spinners at county level, as England have been struggling to find suitable candidates to replace Graeme Swann. Moeen Ali has done an admirable job but he was a batsman turned into a frontline spinner as there was no other clear option.
Lower-order batsmen such as Barker have benefited from this rule change. Counties are now reluctant to prepare seamer-friendly pitches through fear of being asked to bat first and then being skittled out early. Therefore, once the movement with the new ball has disappeared, batting becomes relatively easy-going.
A look at the latest round of championship games, which started on Sunday, offers evidence.
At Lord’s, Barker was rarely troubled until Middlesex – who did not even select a frontline spinner, making do with the “turn” of Voges and Malan – took the second new ball. Even Finn, bidding to regain his England place, lacked penetration with the old nut as the clearest sign of movement came from the green crane next to the pavilion lifting building materials over the pitch, rather than anything on the field of play.
At Headingley, Liam Plunkett hit 126 batting at No8 for Yorkshire against Hampshire in their first innings.
The Gloucestershire bowler Liam Norwell came in at No3 on Monday evening as a nightwatchman. On Tuesday, he scored his maiden first-class century on a Bristol pitch that has yielded more than 1,000 runs scored in three days. The all-rounder Kieran Noema-Barnett expressed his concerns before the start of the season about life being difficult for the Gloucestershire bowlers at this ground again this term.
At Old Trafford, Stuart Broad and Jake Ball added 43 and 33 at No8 and No9, respectively, for Nottinghamshire, Kyle Jarvis hit 37 coming in at No10 and Liam Livingstone – primarily a batsman, admittedly – batted at No7 and scored 70 on his Lancashire County Championship debut.
Graham Napier hit 45 at No9 for Essex away to Sussex in Hove, while Clint McKay notched 65 for Leicestershire in Cardiff from the same place in the order.
Yes, there are very few rabbits nowadays but it is worth reminding ourselves that this is all happening in April. This is the first time there have been four double centuries in a championship season before the end of April.
It is no coincidence the majority of these lower-order efforts happened on day three. Pitches these days are playing better for batsmen as the match progresses – and still the ball barely turns. Bowlers at this level generally do not have the ability to take wickets with the old ball on these kinds of pitches – one of the better attacks on the scene, Lancashire’s James Anderson, Neil Wagner and Jarvis, even resorted to Bodyline-style tactics.
This does not make great viewing for the spectator. It is common knowledge that four-day matches fail to attract the masses and cricket of this nature is only going to exacerbate the problem.
There are six first-class games due to finish on Wednesday and a draw is the most likely result in most of them. Maybe come August, we will be saying this ECB rule change is a good thing if pitches do turn more towards the end of matches. But at the moment, with some counties – such as Middlesex – not even playing a spinner when they are at home as they know the pitch will not turn, it is doing county cricket no favours.
