When Jamie Overton announced on Monday that he is taking an indefinite break from first-class cricket to focus on the white-ball formats, it caught the England management and supporters on the hop. A common reflex was to view it as the latest blow to Test cricket at large.
After all, Overton played in England’s most recent Test – the epic six-run defeat against India – and by all accounts was going to be selected among the pool of fast bowlers for the Ashes moonshot this winter. Aged 31, the chance to go on such a high profile tour is unlikely to come around again.
While Ben Stokes and his side attempt to wrest the urn from Australian hands, Overton will instead be with Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League. Smashed avo breakfasts, three hours of low scrutiny cricket in the evenings, and a healthy pay cheque – nice work if you can get it.
Rob Key, the England team director, called the news “sad” and “unexpected”, and said it “serves as a reminder of the cricketing landscape we now operate in.” With a year-round circuit of franchise leagues being stitched together, the strength of the T20 tractor beam will only increase.
But rather than being another nail in Test cricket’s coffin – “the biggest two-finger salute” to the format yet, read one headline – what if Overton’s decision is actually an endorsement of the five-day game? Perhaps a fringe player opting out is, on one level at least, a sign of its enduring strength.
Overton’s explanation was a practical one, citing an injury-plagued career and the stress the one-off outing at the Oval put on his body. His shoulder was sore for a week, his right side and hip locked up, while the groin niggle he nursed through the Hundred was also believed to be related.
“Test cricket is very special but it takes a lot out of you,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “It doesn’t make sense to keep putting myself in those situations, taking that risk of losing a year or two when I may not have many left.”
That £200,000 Big Bash deal alone is roughly three times an England tour fee, making it a call many would take. But economics aside, it was hard not to also read Overton’s words as tacit acceptance that, despite Test cricket being the dream growing up, he was sadly not quite up to it.
That may sound harsh in one sense. Strong enough to bowl at 90mph and handy enough with a bat to score an important 97 on debut, Overton is a talented player. But by his own admission, Test cricket was “not on his radar” at the start of the season and he was undercooked for the Oval. The upshot was a struggle to deliver his best.
This is the thing about Test cricket. Not only does it pit skill against skill in an array of conditions and scenarios, another aspect that trumps the short stuff is how it strains sinews and synapses over five days. In the case of the high profile series that England’s cricketers are fortunate enough to be furnished with, make that weeks on end.
Though extreme due to the heatwave and the pitches it produced, this summer’s Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy was a case in point. Players were pushed to their very limits, the seamers in particular creaking along the way. Three men – Chris Woakes, Rishabh Pant and Shoaib Bashir – pushed through eye-watering injuries for their respective teams.
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No one wants the format to chew through the quicks or force a superstar like Jasprit Bumrah to play only three out of five Tests in a series. The scheduling could be more forgiving. But even with more scope for recovery between fixtures, Test cricket would remain an endurance sport with no hiding place; no scope to rock up and see how you get on.
This unique challenge is why Virat Kohli said his Indian Premier League win this year – his first at the 18th attempt – sat “five levels under” any of his feats in the longest format. Overton may end up as the Big Bash League’s MVP but, even if just a squad player, an away Ashes win would see folks asking him about the tour for the rest of his life.
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Sam Curran called up for England T20s against South Africa and Ireland
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England have taken decisive action after back-to-back ODI defeats against South Africa, resting the weary Ben Duckett from the forthcoming T20s and recalling Sam Curran for the first time this year.
There have been calls to give Duckett a break ahead of this winter’s Ashes, with the lively left-hander looking unusually subdued in the one-day series against the Proteas.
The 30-year-old was off colour during his stint with Birmingham Phoenix in August and was unable to find rhythm as South Africa wrapped up wins at Headingley and Lord’s. He will now sit out the three 20-over games against the Proteas next week.
Harry Brook, England’s white-ball captain, had rejected the idea that Duckett should be rested in the immediate aftermath of the narrow defeat at Lord’s, but there has since been a rethink behind the scenes.
That includes an olive branch for the previously out-of-favour Curran. The Surrey all-rounder has not played for his country this year, an exile that coincided with head coach Brendon McCullum taking over the reins of the white-ball team, but has put together a strong season on the domestic circuit. Curran has been added to the T20 squad to face South Africa and will also join the three-match trip to Ireland this month.
Meanwhile, pace bowler Matthew Potts will not be making the trip to Malahide and will be made available for Durham’s County Championship conclusion instead. PA Media
Kohli was speaking from a privileged position, of course – a galactico for whom financial security has long since been secured. India’s men are also barred from overseas T20 leagues and international cricket pauses for the IPL, reducing the urge to specialise – save for those with specific skills.
Elsewhere, the horse has bolted as regards the money the two different paths offer and Test cricket is clearly not without structural issues. Talk of creating a two-tier championship is particularly depressing, not least given what that this would mean for some of England’s historic rivalries.
But that it remains so damn hard – an unforgiving arena where cricketers discover how they truly stack up – is at least cause for optimism. Overton found it beyond him but others will continue to step forward.
