Worrall, Burns, Jennings, Gregory – the Not-Quite-England players shaping the County Championship run-in

2 minute read

If you’re in charge of a county cricket club and you want to deliver on-field success, the last thing you want to do is produce England players. If you want to do well in the County Championship, your goal should be to develop (or hire) as many Not-Quite-England-Players as you possibly can.

This is something that is always in the back of our mind when we look at a scorecard. We see the names ‘Sam Cook’ and ‘Jamie Porter’ and we think, “Man, that is who you want opening the bowling in the County Championship.”

England’s selectors will give credit to the likes of Cook and Porter. They will say they have an eye on them. But they don’t really want to pick them. Not really. Not unless they’re absolutely forced to do so.

That means Essex are free to pick them. Result. England matches take place pretty much throughout the summer and if you’re playing for England, you’re not playing for Essex.

Or what about Keaton Jennings at the top of the order for Lancashire? As Somerset scythed through his team-mates yesterday, it was no surprise that Jennings offered some resistance. He is very obviously a significantly better batter than almost all his colleagues and, crucially for Lancashire, he is also tarred by having already played for England without double-sided-sticky-taping down a spot.

Jennings doesn’t just need to do well for Lancashire to lose use of him to England; he needs to do sufficiently well to overcome what is now active resistance. The ceiling for Keaton Jennings’ County Championship performances is therefore higher than if he’d never played for England at all.

Then there’s the man who took four of those Lancashire wickets before chipping in one of Somerset’s better scores in their reply. Lewis Gregory is an indecently handy cricketer to have at your disposal. From his county’s perspective, he also boasts a near-perfect blend of age, attributes and ability to keep him just below the ‘higher honours’ threshold. Gregory has played three one-day internationals when England lost a whole squad to Covid and nine T20 internationals.

Surrey of course provide plenty of England cricketers, which means their title push is consequently driven by those who don’t quite fit the bill. Rory Burns and Dom Sibley are the wrong kinds of opening batters. Dan Worrall is the wrong kind of opening bowler.

At the time of writing, Dan Lawrence is next in to bat. Then Ben Foakes.

After them it’s Sam Curran, whose ‘reliable county stalwart’ status is either approaching with age, or (more likely) receding with each rotation of the T20 franchise merry-go-round.

> Rory Burns and Dom Sibley could be one of the all-time great aesthetically displeasing opening partnerships

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