The England men’s Test team has a problem. Well, it has several: a gallery of injured bowlers, an inconsistent middle order and the ever-looming prospect of a pace attack without James Anderson. Just to name a few. Yet one issue stands out among the rest, a conundrum so taxing that it’s had selectors scratching their heads for more than a decade.
Who should open the batting. More accurately, who can open the batting.
The selectors have looked far and wide in search of a sturdy opening pair. Trying no less than eighteen top order bats in the decade since the retirement of Sir Andrew Strauss. Yet, in those ten years, and the four since Sir Alastair Cook’s retirement, all but none have failed. There’s been flashes of potential, the odd dogged century or impressive shot offering just a glimmer of hope that this time, this batter is the real deal. Then the inevitable happens. Said batter runs out of form, runs out of runs and is discarded.
The time is right to try something new. A fresh face raised in the T20 era, not constrained by the attitudes of yesteryear. A batter built for ‘Bazball’.
Having been at Sussex since the age of ten, Alistair Orr signed his first professional contract in only April of last year. After making his debut that June, his maiden first-class century followed only a month later, an assured 119 against Kent. The runs continued to flow throughout the 2021 season, Orr finishing the county championship with 548 runs at an average of 39.14. Particularly impressive was the manner in which Orr scored his runs: fluent, attacking, a season reeking with potential.
Yet, it’s what Ali’s achieved this year that really caught the eye, scoring three exquisite hundreds and surpassing the thousand run mark for the first time. Winning Sussex’s young player of the year award, the cherry on top for Orr came in the season’s final match. Against Glamorgan, the young opener smashed an astonishing 198 off 174 balls. A knock of flair and barbarity, Ali hit eighteen fours and ten sixes in his three and a half hours at the crease.
Orr finally departed in the unluckiest of fashions. Ajaz Patel deflected a Tom Haines drive onto the centurion’s stumps. Sadly, the left-hander was out of his ground, thus falling an agonising two runs from a maiden first-class double ton.
Heavy Praise inevitably followed. Fans and Pundits alike praised the eloquent and barbaric nature of Orr’s performance. Elizabeth Ammon of The Times even crowned him ‘The Next Big Thing’.
There’s no small portion of competition for Ali Orr. New England coach Brendan McCullum seems stubborn in his backing of Zak Crawley. The first-class game boasts a plethora of experienced openers. Ben Compton and Keaton Jennings led the county championship this season, the latter averaging a remarkable 72.52. Then there’s the familiar wagon wheel of batters who never quite cracked test cricket: Burns, Sibley, Hameed…the list is extensive.
So, what does Orr boast that the tried and tested openers of county cricket lack?
Youth. And all that comes with it.
A batter free from worry about his wicket, Orr’s positive style of play reflects the mindset of a young man playing cricket for enjoyment. Batting with fluency and flair. His aforementioned 198 against Glamorgan came at an astounding strike rate of 113.79. Such attacking intent has rarely been seen at the top for England. And it may just be what Brendan McCullum’s after, having encouraged the incumbent openers to simply ‘play more shots’.
Sadly, there was also no place on the plane to Pakistan for Ali. The selectors instead favoured the in-form Keaton Jennings, Zak Crawley too retaining his place amongst mountains of criticism. After Pakistan, England next play test cricket in New Zealand this February, then onto the Ashes.
Should the Jennings experiment fail, and the dire form of Zak Crawley continue, England will be in desperate need of a new opener. Ali Orr is the bold choice. Inexperienced but exciting. The selectors must roll the dice and give youth a chance.
It’s not merely red ball cricket where Ali has an international future. In August, he made history. Demolishing a tired Somerset attack to record Sussex’s highest ever List-A score of 206 off just 161 balls. A showcase in clean hitting, the monstrous innings included 18 fours and 11 sixes, Orr crashing the ball to all parts of the Taunton ground.
Early in his innings, a snorting bouncer from Kasey Aldridge struck the Sussex batter. The physio was dispatched, and the usual concussion check carried out.
“The physio came on and asked me a few questions, including where we were. I told him ‘Lovely sunny Taunton’, so we had a smile and all was well”.
All was well. Orr completed the year’s one-day cup averaging an imposing 58.44. After topping their group, Sussex crashed out in the semis, yet Ali’s splendid season won’t be forgotten in a hurry.
Although he’ll play no part in the upcoming Australian series, opportunity may arise a little later in the winter. England face South Africa in a three match ODI series beginning this January. With a World Cup fast approaching and Jason Roy in dire form, white ball coach Matthew Mott may look to this series to experiment at the top. Orr would be a wildcard. Yet, with his outstanding record in fifty over cricket, it surely won’t be too long before we see Ali dispatching the white ball for England.
Will Symonds
Sounds good. But then again, each of the openers referred to in the article has been the next big thing at one time or another, and we know what happened to them. With respect, although obviously everyone has to start somewhere, monster runs against Glamorgan and Somerset don’t necessarily mean that the step into international cricket would yield the same result. Time would have to be granted in the test team for the potential to be fulfilled. It probably needs a couple of years to learn that trade.
As far as Crawley is concerned, he surely can’t survive another failed series, but at least the selectors, having spotted what they consider to be the best potential available, are sticking to their guns and granting that couple of years. On these pages I have mentioned before that Graham Gooch took a very long time to establish respectable figures. They stuck with him.
John
No. They didn’t. He was first picked at 3; demolished by Lillie and Thomson and dropped. He went back to Essex; worked hard on his game and came back as an opener. After that the decision to stick with him was an easy one. If Jennings has done the same I would be delighted.
Jennings might have done…but it’s not a very exact parallel. He’s 30 and has already been picked for a fair run on two different occasions, which is usually an indicator that they won’t do a whole lot better on the third attempt. Gooch was 25 and had been picked previously for two tests (at 5 not 3).
I didn’t say it was an exact parallel. My point, made, I thought, clearly, was that if Jennings has successfully addressed his technical weaknesses I would be delighted. Dennis Amiss did something similar.
I like your optimism and God don’t we need a new young opening batsman. My problem is two fold though. In Div 2, whilst scoring 1000 runs at his age is no mean feat, he was outscored by John Simpson, Sam Northeast and (crucially) Habeeb Hameed. All 3 scored at a higher average as well.
More importantly, this was Div 2 and I don’t think we can really judge until he plays against Mo Abbas, Kyle Abbott, Keith Barker (Hampshire), Simon Harmer, Sam Cook (Essex), Tom Bailey (Lancs), Oli Hannon-Dalby (Warwicks) etc. With Sussex’s wretched form in Div 2, it will be a while yet before Ali gets a chance against some of the best county bowlers on the circuit. Will definitely watch out for him though.
I thought Tom Haines was meant to be next in the queue for England?
I think Orr is a great prospect, but some of this seems to be a little overegged–and some of the research a little threadbare.
The “the manner in which Orr scored his runs [was] fluent, attacking”. In 2021?! The season when his strike rate was less than 40 and he had some innings at a rate well under that (I was thinking of his 66-ball 15 and 216-ball 67 in the Headingley game)? Not really.
He should be picked for the SA series on the back of his 50-over form in 2022? He was 20th in the run-scoring charts, was outscored by two batters from his own team–one of whom is also a top-order batter–and was outscored and sometimes outpaced by a number of other top-order batters, notably Middlesex’s entire top order. If Orr should be picked on the basis of that competition, Eskinazi should be in there for the decade! His average was boosted (although he didn’t have a bad season by any means–by that double-hundred, which was eowards the end of the competition against an already demoralised county who were the competition’s worst and who were fielding a team shorn of every member of their regular bowling attack and which was largely a youth team bowling attack.
Sorry, that should read 20th in the averages….
Test players generally come to their peak in their late twenties and early thirties, when they know their game and how to adapt it to the long game in question. I am not against young players if they’re obvious test material and that doesn’t just mean stats, but youngsters who stand out at that age are few and far between. The best test selectors for batsmen are successful test bowlers, who know the technical weaknesses to look for that most county bowlers don’t have the consistency to exploit. For opening batsmen get test opening bowlers in and vice versa. The test arena is littered with youngsters who failed to make their mark by being selected too early. Leave them to learn the ropes in county cricket where they can play more games without being tied to central contracts. The Tendulkars and Laras are once in a generation, freaks of natural talent. Test selectors and county coaches need to work more closely together and patiently work on developing young talent rather than trying to exploit it before it matures. This can ruin careers before they start.
Just wondering- could they do any worse?
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