By Sam Dalling

DAVID PAYNE is smiling. He has been doing so a lot recently and for very good reason. “I feel like I’m back to my best again,” the Gloucestershire seamer tells TCP. It is an assertion backed by evidence.
But first, some context. Payne’s much-deserved England debut came in ODI cricket over in Holland. But rather than his June 2022 bow leading to a flurry of appearances, ankle trouble has ensured Payne remains stuck on one cap.
Having spent a decade striving to get into the England set-up, just like that “it felt like, in my mind, and ...