You wouldn’t design a day like this for the benefit of traditional Test batters; 24.5 overs split across three sessions, stopping and starting in damp conditions on a Lord’s pitch packing more demons than the Insidious franchise.
So, who better to succeed than a batter you wouldn’t design? A tall one, who crouches. With a method so home-spun it’s basically moonshine. Who made his name in the early years as a top-four batter for a dominant Essex, and then primarily at six for a dominant Surrey. Thrust out to face technique kryptonite combinations of outlandish seam movement and erratic bounce.
But with Lawrence’s 50 not out from 66
, those who braved possibly the worst day of the English Test summer had something tangible to take with them. And Lawrence can make further progress in better climes on day four.
The 29-year old did what he could to redress the balance of an English summer of forgettable on-field action and regrettable off-field nonsense.
To be honest, his start was akin to the latter; unnecessarily stodgy with the odd loose swing. For the first 14 balls, Lawrence’s only scoring shot was the thickest cowboy-lassoed edge over the cordon. “A massive, big whooshka” was how the he described it, speaking post-match. “I could have easily been caught at slip and looked stupid.”
Risking looking the fool was no problem for Lawrence. Even in a Test team that has run towards the ridicule, it was a refreshing admission for someone relatively new to this fold, even if this is Lawrence’s 16th cap. Especially after Emilio Gay was dismissed via an embarrassingly low, ankle-high LBW.
“It was one of those days where I thought I had to take a few punts to survive,” Lawrence explained. “I think I was always going to try and take the game on.”
A drilled six over extra cover off Mohammed Ali was the first all-in punt that paid out handsomely. That over, after Brook had been dismissed fending a Mohammad Abbas nibbler through to Mohammed Rizwan standing up to the stumps, begun with an array of play-and-misses that included a jab to the ribs after Lawrence had stepped forward and across to manufacture length. A skew for four to the off side off the penultimate ball might have been enough to satiate others. But Lawrence thought ‘why not go again?’
This sixth half-century for Lawrence brings as much statistical relief – he finally has more of those than Test ducks (five) – as real-time comfort. Picked, essentially, as the allrounder, he has bowled just a single over of his offspin this series as the seamers have hogged the ball in incredibly favourable conditions. And he’s unlikely to add to that before this Lord’s Test is over.
What that means is Lawrence has been able to focus almost entirely on his batting, in a No.6 position “closer to home” than his previous stint with the side.
It amounted to three Tests opening against Sri Lanka when he was deputising for Zak Crawley, without ever being a realistic option to replace him. Even at the time, it felt like a raw deal for an exhilarating batter, and an average of exactly 20 from six innings felt like that would be his lot in Test cricket.
“Like a few of our lads have said, I’d bat anywhere for England if I was asked to,” said Lawrence of the previous run of games. “It just happened at that time, I wasn’t in the best form… thankfully I’ve come into this series with some good form behind me.”
Five centuries among 788 Division One runs in eight appearances for Surrey is the form he is talking about. It has also helped that there has been a complete management overhaul with England, following Stokes’ retirement and McCullum’s sacking as Test coach. Another factor has been Marcus North’s appointment as selector, who has long admired Lawrence as a cricketer and felt the team needed batters who were surer in their games and longer in the tooth.
With that comes maturity, which Lawrence is using to contextualise this latest run of games.
Given England’s depth of quicks and lack of spin options, their current balance works well. Shoaib Bashir is a perpetual work in progress. As much as Lawrence’s stock rises with runs, not bowling hides any deficiencies he may still have at this level.
Not that he’s thinking too far ahead, either towards South Africa, where this current combination suits just fine, or Bangladesh where he would take on a true allrounder role.
“I think I got wrapped up in a lot of things when I played for England before,” he said. “I was thinking about my position a lot and what I needed to do to stay in the team, instead of just actually enjoying it, and realising how lucky I am to play for England.
“My mentality since coming back has been completely different to what it was before; just try and enjoy it. Hopefully we get a good series win and then see what happens in the coming months and years.”
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at Cricinfo
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