Bob Willis Trophy hundred the latest milestone for Tom Abell, three-dimensional and ever-improving

SAM DALLING: It’s been far from plain sailing, but that can only be a positive: you learn more from failure than successful after all

There’s a notion that this year matters little. No County Championship title on the line. No fans in the ground to see it. A one-off tournament. More for show than anything.

No chance. 2020 is a year for coming of age. By the time the Lord’s final rolls around, expect a few names to have pushed themselves into the England reckoning.

The world being as it is, a winter tour may not happen. Still, nice to have something to aim for. With the ECB naming a 55-man squad earlier this summer, anyone who didn’t make the cut would be forgiven for feeling glum. Out in the cold would be the natural assumption.

But that’s not true. International selection is precarious. Players drop in and out of contention like lockdown WiFi. Money talks, and the currency is runs and wickets. With those in your back pocket there’s hope.

One man disappointed not to have featured in ECB’s long list was Somerset’s Tom Abell, and he gave the selectors a timely nudge today. Having seen his off-stump cartwheel from an unplayable Marchant de Lange delivery in the first dig, he notched up a stylish sixth first-class hundred today.

The milestone came up in style too; three figures reached with the second of five straight boundaries off a bewildered Kieran Bull. Four, four, six, six, four, out. Cricket at its finest. 119 all told.

He and Ben Green put on 126 for the fourth wicket as the hosts took a commanding 455-run lead. Unassailable. When not if, as far as victory is concerned. Green himself is a youngster of much promise.

Unfortunate to miss out on the starting XI, the England Under-19 star stepped in for George Bartlett – absent under the concussion protocol – for the second innings and reached a maiden first-class fifty of his own.

Abell was the star of the show though. The 26-year-old has always been highly rated in TA1. Somerset born; Somerset bred.

^{Abell reached his century with a boundary off the bowling of Kieran Bull}

Brought up in the county town, he was a run machine for Taunton School. His classical style – you’d expect nothing else from a high-level rugby and hockey player – earned him the Young Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year award in 2013.

He churned out the scores for Taunton CC during the holidays and it was only a matter of time before his county bow. Not a bad start either. 95 against Warwickshire as a 20-year-old. An early taste of things to come.

But it’s been far from plain sailing. And that can only be a positive. You learn more from failure than successful after all. He first full season was promising, but he followed up with an average one in 2016.

Marcus Trescothick stepped down as captain that winter and the Somerset hierarchy put faith in the local lad as his successor.

Being Tres: The evolution of Marcus Trescothick

Whether it was the extra weight of leading the side we’ll never know, but the right-hander struggled that year.

At one point he dropped himself to the second team, such was his lack of form. Fortunately, the winds have changed direction.

2018 yielded a County Championship average of 40, and he topped the scoring charts last year as the side pushed Essex to the wire. He’s yet to pass 1,000 runs in a season, but Taunton isn’t the batting paradise it once was.

Rack up 300 first up and the game’s all but won. They don’t call it Ciderabad for nothing. But it’s in the white-ball stuff where it really clicked last year.

A stellar 2019 saw him post a maiden T20 hundred and lead his troops to Royal London One-Day Cup victory, in the absence of usual one day skipper Lewis Gregory.

^{Abell replaced Marcus Trescothick as captain}

He enjoyed his first taste of the world T20 circus with Rangpur Rangers in Bangladesh, and he was a shock pick for Manchester Originals in The Hundred draft. At £100,000 he was hardly bargain-bucket either. Must have something about him.

To top it off, he got a Lion’s nod for the trip down under. Initially it was just for the short stuff, but he impressed the coaches and was kept on for the unofficial day/night Test victory over Australia at the MCG.

It capped a remarkable rise for man who rise for a man 12 months previously was far from a regular in the Somerset one-day side. Considering all that, it seems odd was overlooked back in May.  

But Abell is a humble man who holds himself to high standards. He’d be the first to admit he hardly took his chance by the scruff of the neck.  

All is far from lost though. Three-dimensional cricketers are the catch of the day. Abell arguably has four – if you chuck his leadership into the mix.

An elegant top-order stroke maker, the locals purr at that check through extra cover and his drive down the ground.

His bowling’s come on leaps and bounds, and with 32 first class victims in the past two seasons, it’s no stretch to call him a batting allrounder.

And there’s few finer fielders in the land. Teammate Max Waller runs him close, but Abell wins it by a hair.

He’ll need more than one score to catch the eye, but England’s top three are far from cemented. Would he have been a better bet than Denly? Should he be ahead of Crawley? Only one way to find out.

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