By Richard Edwards
Jamie Overton is backing his brother to take an Ashes debut in his giant stride if he gets the nod to start in Brisbane on Thursday.
The younger Overton – born three minutes after his sibling – is continuing his recovery from injury at Taunton this winter but expects to be fit and firing by the time the season re-starts in April.
Craig, meanwhile, has played in every England warm-up in the run-up to the big off in Queensland and looks set to be handed his Test bow in a match that could go a long way to deciding the outcome of the series.
If that happens, then Jamie believes his brother will handle the step-up in the same way he has dealt with every challenge since he first broke into the Somerset first team at the tender age of just 18.
And he’s quick to praise the influence of an Australian in his development, particularly with the ball, over recent seasons.
“Getting an England call-up is obviously the highest accolade you can get as a cricketer and I was delighted for him,” he says. “I was disappointed not to be there with him but hopefully he gets a place in that first Test. He has played all the warm-up games and to be fair has done quite well in all of them.
“He hasn’t got many runs, but that’s one of those things that will be around the corner – he’ll score some sooner rather than later.
“When Chris Rogers came he sat us both down and told us that we needed to bowl a bit fuller,” says Overton. “Since then he has become a completely different bowler over the past two seasons. He has become the main bowler for us down here and has come on leaps and bounds.
“Chris has been massive here for the past two years, he has almost changed the way that we think about cricket. He has always told us to focus on the positive option rather than the negative.”
At 6’5”, both Overtons can be intimidating figures – a trait that England will need to withstand the heat of the Ashes and the inevitable verbal barrage that will follow them around Australia.
England skipper Joe Root was quick to praise Overton’s efforts in the opening two tour matches earlier this week and, barring injury, it looks almost certain that the 23-year-old will play at the Gabba next week.
It will be a world away from Instow, the home of North Devon Cricket Club, where the young Overton’s would spend hours re-enacting Ashes Test matches of days gone-by on the outfield.
The searing heat and humidity in Queensland will be far removed from the biting cold of a winter’s morning in Taunton, but there will be no shortage of team-mates hoping that Overton can have the Aussie line-up on toast on Test debut.
Were it not for injury then there’s every chance that both Overtons would have been vying for a place in the England starting XI – Jamie, like the majority of the country, will hope that Craig starts with a 10 out of 10 performance.
