ANALYSIS - NICK FRIEND: Wicketkeeper Robinson left Kent at the end of the season for Durham in search of regular wicketkeeping opportunities; that he is clearly on England's radar highlights the rationale behind that move
Ollie Robinson hasn't even played for Durham since moving from Kent at the end of the summer, and yet his name in the England Lions squad to tour Sri Lanka goes a long way to validating the reasons behind his decision to leave Canterbury.
It's no secret that Robinson is both highly talented and highly thought of – you will rarely have seen the transfer of a young player from one county to another cause such genuine sadness from supporters and teammates alike – but his motives were precisely this.
He is one of two wicketkeepers – Surrey's Jamie Smith the other – included in a travelling party due to play two unofficial four-day Tests against Sri Lanka A at the start of February. He wasn't involved on the pre-Christmas training camp held in the United Arab Emirates and instead spent a month travelling in Australia.
This particular opportunity might well have come about without leaving behind home comforts, where he had spent the entirety of his career but, moving forward, remaining on England's radar needs him to be keeping wicket regularly. Kent couldn't offer him that, given Sam Billings' similar predicament as Ben Foakes's deputy and Jordan Cox's emergence.
Kent has long been a hotbed for the production of quality glovemen: even Paul Downton, the county's director of cricket, was a wicketkeeper for the club and eventually also for England, though only after taking the same bold call chosen by Robinson – to leave in search of a regular role elsewhere. He ultimately found success with Middlesex after escaping the shadow of Alan Knott who, like Billings now, was the man in possession at Canterbury.
.jpg)
Ollie Robinson has been included in England Lions' Test squad [Getty Images]
For Robinson, then, this is the ideal starting point for 2023: he has toured with England Lions before – as a surprise pick for the fruitful series in Australia shortly before the pandemic – and, as a product of the national under-19 setup, has long been on the radar. More recently, his name featured on a graphic displayed on Sky Sports, showing the wicketkeeping options at England's disposal.
A fast start at Durham, where he is the only established wicketkeeper on the staff following Ned Eckersley's release, can only strengthen that base, particularly with an interesting void of English keepers in the second half of their twenties.
He is quietly a standout name across two squads that feature players at several different stages in their Lions development. Tom Abell, Josh Bohannon and Sam Cook are tried and tested at this level and were part of the trip to Australia last winter; Mason Crane, Matt Fisher, Saqib Mahmood, Haseeb Hameed, Alex Lees, Tom Banton, Brydon Carse and Luke Wood have all made senior international debuts; Cox went to Pakistan for the T20Is in October but didn't play; James Rew, Jacob Bethell and Tom Prest are – Rehan Ahmed apart – the cream of the crop from England's most recent Under-19 World Cup campaign.
ENGLAND LIONS SQUADS FOR SRI LANKA TOURTest: Tom Abell, Josh Bohannon, Jack Carson, Sam Cook, Matt Fisher, Nathan Gilchrist, Tom Haines, Haseeb Hameed, Tom Hartley, Jack Haynes, Lyndon James, Alex Lees, Liam Patterson-White, Ollie Robinson, Jamie Smith, Josh TongueODI: Tom Abell, Tom Banton, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Jordan Cox, Mason Crane, Matt Critchley, Matt Fisher, Sam Hain, Tom Hartley, Tom Lammonby, Saqib Mahmood, Tom Prest, James Rew, Luke Wood
Others, like Tom Hartley and Nathan Gilchrist, are lower-key success stories for the county circuit: Gilchrist, at one stage in 2022, earned the ignominy of equalling the world record for the most consecutive first-class ducks but has also become a bustling seamer with a strong action and decent pace since swapping Somerset for Kent.
Hartley is a tall, wily left-arm spinner, who would be making his List A bow if he features in Sri Lanka. His best work has come in the shortest format, where he has 53 wickets in 59 games. He has made just 10 first-class appearances but has clearly shown enough in that time to be one of just four players in both squads, along with Fisher, Cook and Abell. It would suggest he has usurped county teammate Matt Parkinson as well: once England's next-in-line, he hasn't been selected for any international cricket this winter, with the same true of Dom Bess.
Sam Hain's selection is an overdue victory for one of the best cricketers in the country. It ought not to have taken this long – and he'd have been in the UAE in November but for a hamstring injury – but he'd have 100 ODI caps by now in any other era of English cricket. A first might not be far away, with performance director Mo Bobat making it clear through his statement – "the series also provides us with the chance to observe the players ahead of this year's World Cup" – that he considers the one-day squad to include players capable of squeezing into Matthew Mott's ODI group ahead of England's title defence.
Tom Prest is among the talented youngsters in the Lions ODI squad [Getty Images]
Hain, a middle-order batter, perhaps occupies a role where there is genuine scope for breaking through, with Ben Stokes' ODI retirement not certain to be reversed and Eoin Morgan not yet replaced, though the winters enjoyed by Harry Brook and Ben Duckett make them far likelier candidates at this juncture.
For some, though, just being part of this at all represents a major triumph, none more so in that regard than Josh Tongue, who has been to hell and back in between multiple false dawns.
The Worcestershire seamer has always looked a likely England cricketer at his best – a tall fast bowler of genuine pace, who was on England's pace programme as a teenager and an England Lions tour as a 20-year-old – but has flitted from one injury to another, while still finding the time simultaneously to have taken 143 first-class wickets at 25.25 apiece.
As England's battery of pacers gradually return to fitness – the presence of Carse, Fisher and Mahmood on this trip is encouraging in that sense – Tongue's own good health, as another jampacked year promises to take its toll, comes at an opportune moment, with Lions tours as much fact-finding missions as anything more tangible.
In his case, as in Robinson's and everyone else's besides, there is plenty to be gained.