New Delhi: Former England captain Nasser Hussain said Dan Lawrence doesn’t give the look of being an opener in Test cricket, adding that he needs to have a solid approach in dealing with deliveries outside the off-stump.
After regular opener Zak Crawley was ruled out of the series against Sri Lanka due to a fractured finger, Lawrence was installed as a makeshift opener alongside Ben Duckett. But Lawrence, who primarily bats as a middle-order batter, didn’t make most of the chances – amassing just 120 runs in six innings at an average of just 20.
“Lawrence has got to work out – whatever position he plays, because even in the middle-order they can still bowl outside off-stump – whether he is going to develop patience, become better in that area outside off or maintain ‘that’s the way I play’.
“Whether it be with his county Surrey or with the England coaches, he needs to find his answer. But it goes without saying at the moment that he doesn’t look like a Test match opener. Sri Lanka have bowled both sides of the wicket with the new ball, but others won’t,” wrote Hussain in his column for Daily Mail on Monday.
He also advised Lawrence to take a leaf out of legendary opener Alastair Cook’s method of scoring runs as a Test opener. “Now, as a player averaging 37 in first-class cricket, he has a choice: either copy the tactic of Sir Alastair Cook, leaving the ball outside off-stump and forcing opponents to come to you – Cook wasn’t a prolific extra cover driver, so would wait until the bowlers got bored, then clip the one on his hip for four when they over-corrected – or continue using the default setting of this England side by attacking.”
Hussain signed off by opining Lawrence faces a battle with reserve batter Jordan Cox to get on England’s Test tour of Pakistan next month.”Everything considered he will feel vulnerable with selection coming up for the tours to Pakistan and New Zealand. The former later this week. The one thing in his favour for Pakistan, and the same is true for his county colleague Will Jacks if he is still on England’s radar, is that he bowls useful off-spin, maybe getting more bounce, putting more revolutions on the ball and maintaining better seam position at times than young Shoaib Bashir.
“Zak Crawley is going to come back in to partner Duckett next month and his bowling might be the only thing in his favour if he is up against Essex’s uncapped Jordan Cox for that spare batting berth on tour.”
–IANS