GLOVES PASS TO SMITH – BUT ENGLAND ARE SPOILT FOR CHOICE
DARREN STEVENS
The last week or so has been quite a time for wicketkeepers. We have to start with that extraordinary tied match at Cheltenham, when James Bracey – after his double-hundred in Gloucestershire’s second innings – pulled off a stunning one-hander off the last ball of the game when Glamorgan’s final pair needed one run to pull off a world-record chase of 593. What’s more, Bracey took the catch having removed his glove so that he was ready to have a shy at the stumps as the batters tried to scramble a bye.
My old teammate Sam Northeast, now Glamorgan’s captain, texted me: “Best game I’ve ever played in.”
Wicketkeepers were on fire wherever you looked. Jamie Smith followed up his first-innings hundred with a 70 for table-topping Surrey, James Rew hit a dashing fifty to help Somerset chase down 400-plus, and Harry Finch’s 85 came close to saving Kent against Hampshire. In the preceding round of games, Ollie Robinson hit 198 off 209 balls for Durham against Essex’s powerful attack.
But the most significant development was made in the committee room last Sunday, when England announced their Test squad for the first two Tests against West Indies starting on Wednesday. No Jonny Bairstow, no Ben Foakes; instead the gloves have been handed to Smith. We all know how the wicketkeeper’s role has evolved over the last two decades, which began in earnest with the debate over Alec Stewart (gun batter, accomplished keeper) or Jack Russell (peerless with the gloves, handy with the bat). It’s still evolving now. Foakes is probably the best keeper in world cricket, and he’s a proper run-scorer who can bat in the top six. But that is no longer enough, particularly if you want to get into this England team. You need to be able to ‘hurt’ the opposition with the bat, take the game away from them, move the game forward suddenly and decisively.
On that basis, Smith entirely merits his call-up. He has shown his powers of hitting in this year’s Blast, his 285 runs coming at a strike-rate of 205, and plunders runs at a fair lick when batting in the middle-order in red-ball cricket.
He’s a tall man who is aggressive on the short ball, being used to the bouncy tracks at The Oval. You can see why the selectors are lining him up for the hard pitches England will face in the Ashes down under just over a year from now. The only doubt I have about his selection is that he has not been keeping wicket for Surrey in the Championship, with Foakes the first-choice gloveman.
Smith was by no means the only strong candidate. Indeed, this has the potential to be a golden era for English glovemen. Rew is among the brightest sparks, having passed 1,000 runs in his first full season last year against some top-class bowling attacks on the quick pitches of Division One. Phil Salt has made his name as an ultra-aggressive white-ball batter-keeper and could make a strong case for himself if he plays enough first-class cricket. Further down the line there is 20-year-old Matt Hurst, who has made a strong start to his Lancashire career, including a debut hundred at Trent Bridge earlier this year. Standing up to an offspinner with 530 Test wickets (Nathan Lyon) will have done him no harm this year.
But the man we really need to talk about is my old teammate Ollie Robinson. We had a strange situation at Kent in my last couple of seasons, when we had three high-class batter-keepers at the club:
Robbo, Sam Billings (Bilbo) and Jordan Cox. I felt most for Robbo, who was often overlooked even when he was arguably the best batter at the club. Bilbo and Coxy are both extroverts who aren’t afraid to express what they want. If you asked Bilbo or Coxy where they wanted to bat, they’d tell you, whereas Robbo would slot in wherever the team needed him. That’s why Robbo would be the first name on my teamsheet – not only for his skills (which we’ll come onto shortly), but because as a team man there’s no one better who I’ve played with.
Ultimately Kent lost all three players, at least as far as red-ball cricket is concerned: Coxy left for Essex, Robbo went to Durham, and Bilbo stepped back from the longer format last year. How that happened is a question for the Kent management.
Since joining Durham for the 2023 season, Robbo has scored 1,719 runs at 63.66 in Championship cricket. And, crucially, he has struck those runs at around 85 per 100 balls. This year he’s been doing it right under the nose of England’s Test captain, Ben Stokes, with whom he has frequently batted together in Durham’s middle-order. I’d also suggest that Robbo is the best gloveman of the new crop: you don’t notice him behind the stumps, the hallmark of a good keeper. He couldn’t really have done any more to convince the England selectors and has been very unlucky to miss out this time.
I got in touch with Robbo last week with a view to writing this piece. He spoke to me about the importance of building relationships with his bowlers off the field in order to establish trust and respect between them, which in turn makes them work more effectively on the field. He also talked about his general thought-processes before each game: “How can I effect the game with the bat and the gloves? One half-chance can change everything. Try to provide energy and atmosphere in the middle so you can build pressure and make the batters feel uncomfortable. After all, it’s 11 against two in the middle.” Simple enough, but evidence of a brilliant young keeper now maturing into the real deal.
I was at his engagement drinks earlier this summer, not long after he smashed 171 on the final day as Durham chased 475 to beat Lancashire at Blackpool (they fell 61 runs short). He bought me a Guinness and we sat at the bar while I drooled over his innings. He said to me: “About halfway through that innings we needed about 10 an over and do you know what I was thinking? How would Stevo play? He’d look to hit every ball for six, I told myself. So that’s what I did.” As you can imagine, that went down with me almost as well as the Guinness. Keep going Robbo.
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