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England pace bowler Toby Roland-Jones is on the comeback trail from the injury which cruelly dashed his hopes of taking part in this winter’s Ashes series.
The Middlesex seamer returned to bowling for his county in late November and last week joined up with the ECB’s Pace Programme at Loughborough under the watchful eye of fast-bowling lead Kevin Shine.
His next stop comes on Sunday when he departs for Desert Springs in Spain for the Pace Programme’s winter training camp before his progress is assessed again.
Roland-Jones burst onto the England scene this summer, taking 17 wickets in his first four tests against South Africa and the Windies, including a five-fer on debut at the Oval. However, he then sustained a stress fracture in his lower back during an end-of-season county game, which ruled him out of the Ashes.
Speaking to The Cricket Paper, Roland-Jones said his recovery was progressing well: “I’ve been bowling for the last three weeks and been spending some time in Loughborough, joining up with the young fast bowlers’ programme there to progress things a little bit.
“I did some work with Kevin Shine which was nice and it seems to be developing nicely. So, I’ll keep that moving forward and see where we are coming up to the Christmas period and hopefully I’ll be up to 100 per cent.
“The next thing is getting back to full fitness and then targeting some competitive cricket, moving into the new year. What that is, is still a little bit unclear right now. But, certainly as long as things progress the right way then I’m certainly looking to get back on a pitch and play some cricket.”
Shine explained: “We have further Pace Programme camps in the New Year in Potchefstroom in South Africa and then back at Desert Springs, and then there’s the possibility of the Lions tour of West Indies in February and March as another staging post for Toby before England play a couple of Tests in New Zealand in April.”
Roland-Jones has been following the Ashes series from afar and has been impressed with his Middlesex teammate Dawid Malan who scored 56 in the first Test and made a battling 29 in the second innings at Adelaide.
Speaking after the Brisbane Test, Roland-Jones said: He played really nicely. Playing with someone for a long time, you get to see them when they’re confident and when maybe they’re going through other periods as well. So, he certainly looked like he was really feeling in good form and I thought he applied himself excellently.
“Like anyone, he’d be disappointed to get out having got to 50 and not to have kicked on, but I think if he can carry that forward, having him at number five offers England a real strong look to their batting line-up.”
Roland-Jones is joined on the England Pace Programme by seven other seamers including Reece Topley of Hampshire, Jamie Overton of Somerset and Essex’s Jamie Porter.
- Toby Roland-Jones was speaking at the launch of a new partnership with KidZania London, which sees the unveiling of ‘Lord’s Cricket Ground at KidZania’ – Middlesex Cricket’s new indoor cricket facility based at London’s most popular children’s entertainment attraction
