England

Dan Lawrence: first look in Test cricket

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We don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway.

As a connoisseur of part-time bowling, we are greatly disappointed to have missed the two overs Dan Lawrence bowled on his debut (0-10). Fortunately, his batting (73 and 21 not out) provided plenty of fun and japes and the promise of plenty of mad shots in the years to come.

The England batsmen we like the most generally fall into one of two categories:

  1. The almost wilfully unspectacular ones who gradually win us over with their insane commitment and quirks (e.g. Jonathan Trott or Paul Collingwood)
  2. The ones who have wrists of spaghetti (e.g. Eoin Morgan or Jos Buttler)

Lawrence looks like he may well qualify for the second category. Witness the “cover drive” at the top of the page as evidence of this. (Sorry email subscribers, you’ll need to click through to the website to see.)

The kneeling six was the most exciting shot he played though.

Check it out.

That cricket ball has not merely been hit for six. That cricket ball has been hit-the-fuck for six. It has been smeared for six. It has been walloped for six.

It doesn’t even matter how far the ball travelled, that is a confectionery-stall-and-out-again-er of a six. If you wanted to land a cricket ball on Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, this is how you’d go about it.

In conclusion, if Dan Lawrence can continue averaging 94 in Test cricket while hitting shots like this every match, we will be in favour of his continued inclusion in the team.

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Similar deliveries:

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14 comments

  1. Are the two categories mutually exclusive? A batsman could theoretically have both wrists of spaghetti and be wilfully unspectacular at the same time.

  2. The final sentence is a good example of why i keep coming back to the Kingdom. Great article generally.

  3. I was one of the fortunate few who did witness the Lawrence two-over spell live. He sort-of bowls off the wrong foot, thus making his weight transference seem quite other for spin bowling, yet he seems to be able to pitch the ball roughly where he want it to pitch.

    I was also fortunate enough to witness the kneeling-six live. On reflection, The Kneeling Six ought to be the name of a gospel choir, who burst into Oh Happy Day at the thought that England won the test match despite a late attempt to snatch defeat from the very jaws of victory.

  6. YES! Take that Australia. In your winningest ground!

    Dear everyone,
    The gates are open.
    Regards,
    Fortress ‘Gabba

    1. Dan L (not the Dan L this post was about) is probably contacting Indian cricket bloggers as we speak to set up a Ridiculous Border-Gavaskar Trophy podcast

      1. Why would he be doing it and not us?

        There are a number of credible answers, but just wondering.

  8. Gosh that was worth seeing. Daisy and I were glued…watching test cricket.

    First hour and last hour; such fun hearing the commentators’ tack change. To be fair, it must be hard to commentate when you only have one eye.

    Test cricket.

  10. I’m Australian and loved it. Especially the 5th day and the balls bowled after 100 were in each innings.

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