The slower you bowl, the faster people are to make up their minds about you. Which means that if you work at Sam Cook’s pace, the margins are pretty slim. There have been plenty of English bowlers round about Cook’s 80mph who got only a summer of Test cricket, some who were allowed only a single series, a handful who were given just the one Test.
England used to make a tradition of picking a new one every spring, so you’ll probably find that bloke in the tracksuit teaching the colts how to bowl at the club down the road had a gig opening the bowling for their country once upon a summer.
