Jamie Smith has made a remarkable start to the season after being dismissed for 9 in his first innings of the summer. He’s made scores of 132, 166 and 89 to put himself top of the batting charts this summer with 396 runs at an average of 99.
Smith’s move up to number 3 for Surrey has made him play with more maturity and score his runs at a slower pace. He’s not being forced to play the “bazball” way with the tail end; he can just bat properly with the top order. It will be interesting to see what England does with Smith when the test matches arrive. I can’t see him being moved up from number 7, to be honest, the England top order seems to be locked in with Bethall at 3, Root at 4, Brook at 5, and Stokes at 6. Could Smith possibly open? I think this would be a mistake; he may open against a white ball, but the red ball is a completely different animal. If his form continues, I would leave him at 7, but tell him to put more faith in the English lower order and just to bat properly. He has the ability; we’ve seen it through his short career so far. He just needs to get his head down and bat.
No article about batters would be complete without mentioning a certain Somerset left-hander, would it?
James Rew has again shown his class this season, batting both at number 3 and 4. He’s been in early every time he’s come to the crease and has batted with great maturity, well above his young age. He looks like a very old-fashioned batter prepared to bat for long periods of time and soak up pressure. There is a modern touch when he plays the reverse sweep, a favourite of his against the spinners.
Rew has made 379 runs in 5 innings at 75.8 so far this summer, but it could have been so many more. In the most recent game against Hampshire, he struggled to start his innings again the following morning. He was 77* overnight in the first innings, and was dismissed for 86 the following morning, and he only added 1 run to his overnight 58* in the second innings. As many of you know, the old saying in cricket is “when you’re in, you’re in”, make the opposition pay, bat long, score big 100s.
England will not be able to ignore Rew for much longer; it’s just a question of where he would bat? He has the same issue as Smith; England’s top order is locked in, and if Smith plays and keeps, he’ll bat 7, leaving the only place for Rew at the top of the order. Rew has never opened in first-class cricket. Before this season, he was batting at number 6, so to bump him up to open would be a huge mistake. Let him keep racking up runs for Somerset until an opportunity becomes available. Do not try to fit a square peg into a round hole; it could do more harm than good.
Now we reach the batter who should open for England this summer, Ben McKinney.
McKinney has long been spoken of as an England opener, and I think his time has arrived: 290 runs in 3 innings at an average of 96.67, including a mammoth 244 against Gloucestershire. A tall, elegant left-hander who makes batting look easy. At only 21, he could be seen as too young; I don’t think so. If you’re good enough, then you’re old enough.
As I’ve said before in this article, the only slot open in England’s order is at the top. McKinney has started the summer well and actually opens the batting for his county. People may say that Durham plays in the second division, and the standard isn’t as good, but I think he deserves a go. Michael Vaughn and Marcus Trescothick were picked out of county cricket with modest averages when England needed some fresh batters in the early 2000s, so why not take a chance on McKinney?
Tom Abell has made 329 runs in 5 innings at an average of 82.25. More importantly for all of the Somerset fans out there, he seems to bat well with James Rew, and with their struggles at the top of the order, the pair have been instrumental in Somerset’s early rise to the top of the championship.
Abell will not set the world alight with his “thou shalt not pass” style, but he’s a solid cricketer who’s started the summer well. He’ll be a huge part of Somerset’s quest to win their first-ever championship.
Joe Clarke has made a bright start to his summer. The 29-year-old Nottinghamshire batter has made 273 in 4 innings at an average of 68.25. Again, like Abell, Clarke is a strong middle-order batter. He made 136 against Glamorgan at Trent Bridge in the second round of fixtures this summer. Although not genuinely pushing for England honours, Clarke will look to play solid cricket for Notts. If Notts are to regain their title this season, Clarke will play a big part in their middle order. He just needs to churn out consistent runs.
Now we reach the man who opened for England in the last test match they played, Zak Crawley.
If England selects Crawley to open the batting against New Zealand in June, I personally won’t watch. Crawley’s test record is poor at best. Somehow, he’s played 64 test matches while only averaging 31.18. England have stuck with him over recent years because they backed him to score runs in Australia, and they wanted a settled team for the Ashes. Crawley repaid England’s faith with 273 in 10 innings. To make these stats even worse, Crawley continues getting out the same way; he’s either caught behind the wicket driving loosely at balls outside the off-stump, or he’s out LBW to the ball moving back into him.
Crawley’s technique is simply not good enough for international cricket. Keep making the same mistakes, and top-level bowlers will have toast. He can’t seem to deal with the moving ball. Being an opener, that’s a rather large problem, because the new ball does tend to move around, no matter where you play around the world.
His flat-footed driving on the up is another huge issue. He does not play the ball late enough for my liking; he’s well out in front of his body, and his foot is nowhere near the pitch of the ball. So if the ball does move, there’s no way he can back out of the stroke. Pushing hard away from your body is just going to get you out at the international level, and Crawley has fallen into that trap time and time again for England. Surely his time is up.
His return to county cricket, too, has been poor. 60 runs across 4 innings will do nothing to help his England chances unless his old mates Rob Key and Brendon McCullum decide he somehow gets another go.
