First came Ben Duckett for Northamptonshire, followed by Sam Robson and Jonny Bairstow, as double centurions this spring. And now to their number can be added Jonathan Trott. With the Warwickshire No4 62 overnight, a pristine sunny spring day and a pitch that was playing better by the hour, there was nothing more certain than the old stager (less of the old, he might say) filling his boots unless it is Ian Botham supporting Brexit.
Four championship doubles, and only midway through April, is unprecedented, even allowing for the absence largely of such cricket until this millennium. When Trott ran out of partners he had reached 219, seven runs shy of a career best scored against Bangladesh almost six years ago on this same Lord’s turf.
Trott, together with lower-order resistance that appears to be the norm rather than exception these days, (whatever happened to the fast bowlers’ tail-end perks?) rescued Warwickshire from a sticky situation of 173 for six. With stands of 143 for the seventh wicket with Keith Barker (81), another of 65 for the eighth with Jeetan Patel (30) and, most irritating for Middlesex, one of 67 for the last wicket with Oliver Hannon-Dalby (30), Trott took his side to 468, a first-innings lead of 16.
If, with only four sessions of play remaining, it looked like a dead game, then Barker, a terrific county cricketer who is enjoying a fine start to the season with ball and bat, gave some food for thought, removing Nick Gubbins and Dawid Malan cheaply with the new ball, both caught at first slip, to leave the home side lurching at 20 for two.
It was the last Warwickshire success of the day, as Nick Compton, in on a king pair but undefeated on 34, and Robson, 35 not out, saw them to the close at 76 for two, a lead of 60.
It is hard to imagine Trott playing better than this. The morning was a battle against an urgent Middlesex battery of five seamers as Toby Roland-Jones took two early wickets but he remained as unruffled as ever, in his zone, scratching out his territory, clipping the ball precisely away off his legs and reaching his hundred from 158 balls with 15 fours.
In the afternoon, with the sun out and the ball softer, his progress became an inevitability. Barker provided some impetus and together the pair took Warwickshire out of immediate danger.
With the departure of the penultimate batsman Chris Wright it looked as if Trott, then 192, might fall short of his double century. Somehow Hannon-Dalby survived as a boundary pulled off James Harris, and a few singles took Trott to 199 but a loss of the strike. His partner survived and Trott reached his double, from 274 balls, with his 29th four, edged off Malan’s legbreak past a groping slip.
The helmet controversy is still rumbling on. On the second day Trott had batted in his familiar helmet, one with an adjustable grille that does not conform to the England and Wales Cricket Board’s new stringent standard. It is the same helmet he wore last week in their opening match at the Ageas Bowl, where it appeared to have passed without comment or anyone noticing at all.
For the second part of this innings he had been wearing one of the new helmets, the ECB having instructed him to switch. “I changed it overnight,” he said after play. “I had both with me but I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to use the old one. You grow up using one with the grille in a certain place and get used to that. As a batsman you can be quite fussy. The new one is a bit heavy and that can affect your vision but overall it was not a problem using it.”
