England did not emulate Alastair Cook’s side of 2012-13 by winning a Test series in India. It’s become the hardest task in cricket. However, it was still a compelling contest and, while England’s batters did not score at the rate they did when they visited Pakistan, there were plenty of signs that Bazball is alive and well. The selection of Rehan Ahmed, Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley to accompany Jack Leach as England’s spin attack was a triumph of instinct over playing it safe. Last summer, Liam Dawson took 49 first-class wickets at an average of exactly 20, while the inexperienced triumvirate picked up a combined 37 wickets at over 55. Yet the rookie trio took 50 wickets between them, having bowled with control and guile, vindicating their selection and standing comparison with their much more experienced Indian counterparts.

But Brendon McCullum pointed to an obvious concern for the summer ahead. Bashir plays in the same Somerset side as Leach, while Hartley’s Lancashire welcome Nathan Lyon as their overseas signing. Will either of them get much of an opportunity to play? With so much early-summer Championship cricket, you fear the worst. Could it make sense for them to be loaned out for a spell? At least England now have a genuine selection dilemma for the spinner’s role in the series with West Indies and Sri Lanka. As has been said many times before, we need to amend the calendar to enable our spinners to have a chance to bowl lots of overs when the wickets are at their most suitable, rather than confining them to the edges of the summer when they cannot be as effective.

Our cover star this year is Yorkshire and England’s Harry Brook, who has scored 1181 runs in 12 Tests at an average of 62.15 – no other batter has burst upon the scene so successfully since Kevin Pietersen. His technique is simple and effective, and he looks as though he is hugely enjoying himself with bat in hand. Longstanding readers of the Annual will remember the so-called ‘Curse of Playfair’, where cover stars immediately broke mirrors, lost form or picked up a serious injury. So they won’t have been surprised when Brook had to withdraw from the India tour for personal reasons – the first of several from both teams to do so.

We do not know the circumstances behind any of these absences, but I do wonder if in some instances we may be seeing a response to the relentless international schedule, supplemented by the franchise tournaments. Since the beginning of 2020, Steve Smith has played just one Sheffield Shield game for New South Wales; Virat Kohli last played a Ranji Trophy match for Delhi in November 2012 – when Rehan Ahmed was just eight years old. It’s never going to happen, but I feel sure that our greatest cricketers would benefit from a regular opportunity to play some cricket away from the brightest spotlight – it may be one factor as to why the County Championship draws in so many top names, with Lyon the latest to come to these shores.

And that’s just one reason why the Championship remains such an exciting and valuable – but hugely undervalued – competition. The tweak to the point-scoring system last year, with 450 runs now needed (rather than 400) for maximum batting points, seems to have encouraged more positive batting. While compiling the averages this year, I noticed how many bowlers who usually bowl more than a hundred maidens in a season were having to make do with 75 instead. Beyond the action itself, there is a compelling blend of long-serving county pros, international greats and young players hoping to catch the eye of the selectors. Because, with this England set-up, you know they will be given an early opportunity. So why not head to your local ground, Playfair in your pocket, and see if you can spot the next star in the making before the selectors do?

Ian Marshall

Eastbourne, 11 March 2024

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