OUT OF THE OPERATING ROOM, INTO THE FIRE FOR LIONS STAR DAVIES

James Coyne speaks to the Lancashire keeper on a whirlwind trip from surgeon’s knife, partnering Hameed and being flown out to Australia

At first glance Alex Davies looks and sounds like a throwback – short of stature, softly-spoken, red-haired and a twinkle in the eye. It does not take much to imagine him standing up, in just a cap, to Jack Simmons or Barry Wood on a damp outground wicket.

The lad from Blackburn inspired one of the most memorable lines of cricket journalism in 2017, written by Paul Edwards: “He grins out of his photographs like one of William Brown’s outlaws in Richmal Crompton’s once-popular stories. One can imagine him scrumping apples or making good use of a catapult in the age before screens sought vainly to dull the young.”

But this 23-year-old, who will keep wicket for England Lions in Australia, is as much a creature of the myth-busting modern age as any. He opens the batting, for starters, something he is aware that keepers have not done with great success at Test level.

Only 14 hundreds have been struck by the designated wicketkeeper in a Test match (and, for all that Alec Stewart struck eight centuries as an opener, they were all in matches where he had ceded the gloves).

The only opener to scored over a thousand Test runs while also keeping wicket was a predecessor as Lancashire wicketkeeper, Farokh Engineer of India, who struck two centuries and nine fifties. Come to think of it, he would have stood up to Simmons and Wood for Lancashire…

^{Alex Davies is with the England Lions in Australia}

Davies suspects his burgeoning ability to combat the new ball – something England Test teams have struggled with in recent times – is a feather in his cap at a time that demands all-round skills.

“Keepers are stereotypically middle to lower-order batters, and that’s not really what I want to be,” he said. “I want to bat high up the order and keep wicket. In terms of opening the batting, it’s possibly the hardest job in cricket – to keep all day and then open the batting. If you go into subcontinent countries, it can be hot… But I’ll keep sticking to what I do. I’ve shown I can bat in the middle but really I want to bat at the top.”

The one obvious drawback is the concentration it requires to fulfill two highly specialist roles. What happens when the opposition are eight or nine down, the spinners are on, and Davies’ mind wanders to opening the batting, when all of a sudden a ball grips out of the rough and takes the edge?

“That has happened to me a couple of times. They’re nine down and you start to think, ‘OK, get your batting head’. All of a sudden a catch comes… It’s more of an issue off the pitch. You have to look after yourself more, eat better, be a bit more professional. Because you need all the energy you can get. If you’re [batting] lower down you’ve got a few hours’ rest. I found I looked after myself a bit better this year.”

There is a reason for that: in 2016, Davies went through the most difficult passage of his career. He underwent surgery on his knee and – having not scored a first-team century for Lancashire – was not certain that he would make it back to the top level.

^{Davies has come back from injury to fight towards international selection}

“It was a tricky time, but I wouldn’t have got through it without the medical guys at Lancs, more so from a mental point of view. They did their job physically, but they helped me so much on the days when I felt I wasn’t going to play cricket again, they kept me going. I don’t mind saying that I got down. I wanted to play for England, and I was thinking ‘what am I going to do if I can’t play cricket again?’

"But always in the back of my head, I always believed I would play cricket again. There are doubts from time to time. But it makes you appreciate it a bit more. It makes you more professional and not want to get injured again.

"Injury made me a better person, it makes me value my cricket career a little more.”

It was Peter Moores, the 2011 Championship-winning Lancashire head coach, who persuaded Davies to start keeping full-time. And the current coach, Glen Chapple, kept faith with Davies when he was injured.

Chapple did sign the South African Kolpak, Dane Vilas, for 2017, but made it clear to Davies that he was still his first-choice keeper.

“Chappie was really good with me. He said: ‘don’t panic, we’ve signed a keeper, but you’re my keeper’. To be honest I didn’t blame him at the time because I got injured the year before.

"So there was no reason why he could 100 per cent back my fitness if I went down again. Keeping with Crofty [Steven Croft] wasn’t an option again. And Dane strengthened our batting. He’s a Test-match batter.”

It paid off handsomely, as Davies became the first keeper to score 1,000 first-class runs in a season for Lancashire, including three centuries, and combined it with 48 dismissals (six of them stumpings).

^{England are well equipped with wicketkeepers, with Davies an option alongside Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Sam Billings and Ben Foakes} 

His opening partner has generally been Haseeb Hameed, though the arrival of Keaton Jennings in the close-season will test them both. Hameed has had a rollercoaster year and a half since his Test debut in India, and Davies says he tried to help where he could.

“It’s good batting with Has. I really enjoy it. He likes to defend and grind the bowlers down. I’m slightly more attacking and aggressive, putting more pressure on the bowlers. I’d imagine we’re quite difficult to bowl to as a pair.

“I knew him really well, but I didn’t know how he would deal with those things. In the middle I didn’t know if he wanted a lot of talking between us, if he wanted me to keep my mouth shut… towards the end of the season I realised he needed something to keep his mind off technical things.

"So I would say ‘two more runs until we get a 50 partnership’… Something so that he doesn’t get internal on himself.”

The Lions have got themselves an impressive young Lanky and, with the likes of Jos Buttler and Sam Billings prioritising franchise T20 over bread-and-butter red-ball cricket, Davies must head to Australia not entirely out of the picture.

MORE FROM THE CRICKETER: Who is Chadd Sayers?