England Lions squad announcements, in their own little way, provoke as much fury as the senior squad, with focus as much on who is out than in. This time, for the flight (economy class, so their heads don’t swell too much) to Australia to shadow the Ashes squad – which may yet find it has a large hole in it – the story was the same.
The selectors have chosen a mixed bag of Test players (namely Tom Westley, Keaton Jennings, Mark Wood and Ben Duckett), those who have pushed on this year, those who have stalled but have credit in the bank, and those who barely register with their counties but are all the rage at the England and Wales Cricket Board’s national performance centre in Loughborough.
Ostensibly this is a training camp but they play a three-day match against a Queensland XI as well as three Twenty20 games against Perth Scorchers. The real business takes place after Christmas in the Caribbean, with three “Tests” and three one-dayers against West Indies A. Selection will be revisited in December, when the squads for North-South will also be picked. Those supporting the coach, Andy Flower, are as interesting as the squad; Chris Silverwood, mastermind of Essex’s title win, will look after the bowlers, while Adam Hollioake, the former Surrey and England captain, is fielding coach.
There are – with Jennings, Duckett, Nick Gubbins (who has had a tough summer but is highly rated by Flower and Graham Thorpe, the England batting coach) and Lancashire’s impish wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Davies – plenty of openers about, and that is with Haseeb Hameed not considered because of his broken finger. Still, strong cases could be made for Rory Burns, Nick Browne and Luke Wells at the top of the order, and of course the perennially overlooked Sam Northeast – who, bafflingly, has never played for the Lions and would have been an ideal leader in this group – lower down. Age may have counted against all of them, given the oldest uncapped batsmen in the squad are 24, and only Jack Leach at 26 is older.
The middle order was more predictable, with Liam Livingstone’s quality established, and Dan Lawrence and Joe Clarke so promising that international careers feel more when than if. Westley, like Duckett (who has ended talks with an overseas T20 franchise to tour with the Lions, which says plenty about his commitment to winning a spot back) and Jennings, will be mighty relieved his international career appears to be on hiatus, not over.
Essex’s Jamie Porter, the leading wicket-taker in the championship, was perhaps the easiest pick of all, but a penny for Ian Botham’s thoughts on Paul Coughlin’s call-up, a fortnight after he left Durham for Mick Newell’s Nottinghamshire.
Tom Curran will head to South Africa to play T20 cricket and while his brother Sam has not kicked on as some hoped this summer his absence is still a great surprise. However, having only turned 19 in June and with more than 100 top-level appearances already, a little rest will do him no harm. That said, Sussex’s George Garton and Lancashire’s Saqib Mahmood – both quick and prodigiously talented but seldom seen in county cricket – pipping Curran, Yorkshire’s Ben Coad and Worcestershire’s Josh Tongue is a little strange.
Supporters of Somerset will be relieved to see Leach and Dom Bess both selected. With the strength of the records of Leach and Bess, who is also good enough to bat No8 and fields brilliantly, it is worth wondering if they can coexist at the same county (playing every game, home and away), or if Somerset will eventually encounter a situation like they did with Craig Kieswetter and Jos Buttler four years ago. Let us hope not, as they are great fun to watch in tandem.
They will be supported in the spin bowling department by Surrey’s Amar Virdi, who is 19 and has been coached by Saqlain Mushtaq, who has made such a difference to Moeen Ali’s bowling, for the past six years. Perhaps Matt Parkinson, the Lancashire leggie, is unlucky but a full winter playing grade cricket – from which Mason Crane benefited so greatly last year – would not go amiss.
While the Ben Stokes situation remains unresolved, this squad carries greater significance. The selectors know full well that were Stokes unable to travel, he is not replaceable with a single cricketer. Wood was devastated to be left out of the original Ashes party and must be well placed to pick up the bowling slack, while Westley and Livingstone would surely front the middle-order queue.
There was some concern Livingstone appeared to freeze on T20 international debut against South Africa in June but he is a cricketer of chutzpah not known for feeling cowed. A six-wicket haul for his off-breaks in Lancashire’s final game of the season looks handy in the hunt for an all-rounder too (a Cumbrian one at that), although even he surely would not call himself that yet. Very few can.
Lions squad
Dom Bess (Somerset), Joe Clarke (Worcestershire), Paul Coughlin (Durham/Nottinghamshire), Alex Davies (Lancashire), Ben Duckett (Northamptonshire), George Garton (Sussex), Nick Gubbins (Middlesex), Tom Helm (Middlesex), Keaton Jennings (Durham/Lancashire), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Jamie Porter (Essex), Amar Virdi (Surrey), Tom Westley (Essex), Mark Wood (Durham).
