The gnarled old pros talk about the best batsmen being able to make ‘ugly’ runs, which should sit well with Dan Lawrence whose unconventional style of batting is anything but pretty.
To be fair, Lawrence, who made an unbeaten 81 in the first innings against New Zealand at Edgbaston, does play sumptuous shots when he is set, it is just his defence which looks at odds with convention. But then as one Essex skipper of legend, Keith Fletcher, used to say about batting: “It isn’t how, but how many.”
This was Lawrence’s third score over fifty in seven Tests, which is heartening given that five o...