Gubbins pushes case for Test selection at Lord’s

OWEN RILEY AT LORD'S: England’s Test past, present, and perhaps future, were on display for Middlesex as Nick Gubbins, Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan all hit half-centuries at Lord’s

While Mark Stoneman and Rory Burns fell cheaply at The Oval, north of the river Nick Gubbins made a solid statement to the England selectors.

Before the season began, Gubbins told The Cricketer that he was not the type to worry about how close he is to Test selection, but surely now it must be on his mind.

In his last five innings, including the North-South Series, Gubbins has registered scores of 116, 109, 8, 107, 99.

On a day which saw the 24-year-old pass 3,000 first-class runs, Gubbins was solid in defence and ruthless against anything a millimetre either side of decent.

His stock is rising swiftly and it could well be two left-handers opening for England against Pakistan at Lord’s, but which two remains to be seen.

Stoneman is probably still the favourite, although he is yet to reach 30 for Surrey this summer. With a selection shuffle, who knows?

Gubbins took advantage of an uncontested toss which saw Gloucestershire skipper Chris Dent elect to bowl. Dent may live to regret the call as Middlesex swiftly got on top of visitors’ bowlers.

^{Malan followed a hundred at Hove with fifty at Lord's}

The opening duo of Gubbins and Sam Robson showed intent from the off, adding 59 in the first 10 overs of the day.

It was an important morning for Robson in particular, who came into the game averaging 10.57 in Championship so far this summer. The former England opener quickly moved past his highest score this year (19) but could not kick on to a half-century or more.

Daniel Worrall, running in from the pavilion end, had the right-hander caught behind for 36. Robson had looked set to arrest that disappointing early-season form, but as the sun was screened out by a veil of white cloud cover, his promising start was brought to an end.

It was a decent delivery but not unplayable, Robson will know that this was his chance to put the first four matches behind him and start again.

Gubbins continued in authoritative style with a dismissive pull punishing a short delivery from Craig Miles and took two more boundaries off Kieran Noema-Barnett to reach his fifty from 73 balls.

Gubbins' 13th boundary was one of great confidence, leaning back like a gentleman reclining into an armchair and easing the the ball wide of third man. At lunch the left-hander was 70 not out - 52 in fours - and looked nailed out to reach three figures.

^{Morgan showed no signs of red-ball rustiness}

Post lunch Stevie Eskinazi was caught behind off Worrall, flashing wildly at a wide one which was palmed skyward and taken at the second attempt by Noema-Barnett.

Meanwhile Gubbins eased back into his work and soon worked his way into the nineties. Just as the Lord’s crowd waited for another century to be punched in, Worrall found his mark. 

He produced a nerve-jangling jaffa to beat the edge before following it with a rising delivery which found the bat to send Gubbins on his way one run short of his hundred.

While Gubbins is potentially a piece in England’s future, the next portion of the afternoon was marshalled by two of the current crop as Middlesex skipper Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan met in the middle.

After hitting 84* and 29 at Hove last week, 20-year-old Max Holden was the unlucky absentee with Morgan returning for Middlesex for the first time since bagging a pair at Merchant Taylors’ School in 2015.

The pair began their stand with Middlesex 186 for 3 and consolidated the strong start as they dominated the Gloucestershire attack, adding 132 before they would part ways.

^{Future England opener?}

Malan produced wild flail to Worrall when he was on just eight, but from there looked every bit an England Test batsman as he worked his way to a classy half-century.

Morgan initially showed white-ball aggression before absorbing 132 deliveries in a knock that lasted over three hours and showed great skill in adaptability.

England’s white-ball skipper faced four dots before slapping his fifth ball over narrowly over mid-on for four.

So acclimatised to the white-ball, Morgan looked as though he was going to take to the red leather like a bull faced with crimson as he moved from eight to 14 with a hefty swipe over long-on towards the media centre.

From there he appeared to reign in the Twenty20 mindset and with some elegant cover drives along the way, reached fifty on his return to the side.

As floodlights took over, Malan on 76 showed a lapse of concentration with a wafty attempted cut to a delivery that flew through to the keeper. It was perhaps enough to disarm the batsman who was pinned lbw the very next ball.

Hilton Cartwright, who has offered Middlesex very little with the bat so far, fell for a duck before Morgan’s effort was undone late in the day, lbw to Ryan Higgins.

Three potential hundreds went unclaimed and Morgan's dismissal takes some of the sheen off the day, but Middlesex will be relatively pleased with 350+ on the board.