Unlucky: England’s Dan Lawrence fell just nine runs short of a maiden Test century on day one in Barbados
(Picture: Getty Images)There was an inescapable question on the lips of England fans – and there are plenty of them – on day one in Barbados: where was Dan Lawrence in the Ashes?
While Joe Root, all wit and wisdom, reached stumps on a wonderful unbeaten 119, it was Lawrence who lit up the day. In the 45 overs before he came in, they scored 80 runs (with Alex Lees dropping anchor). In the 44.5 overs he was at the crease, they scored 164. That made it an excellent day for England.
Lawrence fell in the final over of the day in agonising fashion. The new ball was under five overs old, yet already he had strummed it for three delightfully driven fours to move to 91, a career-best. On a flat pitch, a maiden Test hundred awaited in the morning. But Lawrence could not resist one last drive, to the day’s penultimate ball, and picked out extra cover. He slumped to his knees before walking off, head down.
It was a poor dismissal, especially as Lawrence had been dropped at slip on 72. Marcus Trescothick, England’s batting coach, was dismissed six times between 81 and 99 in Test cricket, so knows how Lawrence feels. “Really annoying” was his simple assessment.
“We will look at the innings and say ‘well played, it was brilliant you did everything right’,” explained Trescothick. “And then we try to understand what happened there? Did anything change? Those are the sort of questions we’ll sit down and talk about.”
However frustrating its ending, this was an enterprising, entertaining innings studded with lovely boundaries. He took 10 balls to get off the mark, then pushed down the ground, flicked through mid-on (there could barely have been a more appropriate birthplace than Leytonstone’s Whipps Cross Hospital), and pulled the seamers, while taking the spin of Veerasammy Permaul on, swatting to cow and cutting for fun.
Australia seemed a world away. There, Lawrence was a peripheral figure, unable to get a game, even in Hobart, when Ollie Pope was recalled ahead of him. Pope, a close friend and contemporary of Lawrence, looked all at sea.
Those inside the England camp believe Lawrence is little use as a gopher; he needs to play. If he is sidelined, his attention wanders to brighter lights. He gained a reputation in Australia, while drifting, as a poor, unfocused trainer. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy: he did not believe he stood a chance of being selected, so lost interest, which pushed him further from selection. Word was that England wanted him to work harder on his spin. He became the tour’s forgotten man.
In the end, not playing might just have worked out well for Lawrence, because he left Australia unscathed, and now has first crack at a spot many thought was Pope’s. He has looked energetic and enthusiastic. This is just Lawrence’s 10th Test, but it has been bitty so far: two matches at No5, two matches at No3, dropped; one match at No7, three matches at No6, dropped; now a run at No4. Andrew Strauss even suggested that he is opening cover for this tour.
He is making a good go of it. In Antigua, he was overkeen in the first innings, but superbly selfless in the second. Here, he played his best innings yet for England. It is not the first time he has matched his distinctively Essex gait, all strut and swagger, with the appetite for the big occasion (and the crowd here certainly made it that): he made 73 on debut, performed well on a wild pitch in Ahmedabad, and made a defiant 81 against New Zealand at Edgbaston. Yesterday, his tally of fifties drew level with his tally of ducks (four).
As he showed yesterday, Lawrence is an unpredictable cricketer. Whatever happens, it will be highly watchable, compelling viewing.
