Alastair Cook’s bravery with the bat has never been questioned but the England captain’s mettle will be severely tested over the next few days when he faces up to a group of giant pace bowlers and two county tearaways, Tymal Mills and Harry Gurney, on the fastest net pitches in world cricket.
Normally it is a captain’s perk to be able to delegate, but not when Andy Flower is in charge and not when three of the colossi, Steven Finn, Boyd Rankin and Chris Tremlett, are vying for the third seamer’s role and are out to impress the captain into handing it to them.
Perception is everything and a good spell against Cook will count double, providing their thunder is not stolen by the rapid Mills who has been joined by Gurney in order to replicate the kind of left-arm bowling – think Mitchell Johnson – England expect to face when the Test series begins in just over three weeks time.
“The third seamer spot is up for grabs,” Cook said after England’s first training session at the Waca Ground yesterday. “In the past Andy Flower always made sure any bowlers pushing for a place bowled at Andrew Strauss when he was captain.”
Mills, 21, is a team-mate of Cook’s at Essex, but is more raw potential than finished article. That means he is very fast but unpredictable, a combination that saw several England players struck by him when they played a practice match against Essex last summer. “I think Tymal is pretty much the quickest bowler in England,” Cook said.
“I think the next couple of weeks are going to be quite interesting. We’ve got four giants who can bowl pretty quickly and two skiddier ones who can bowl just as quick. When I found out Tymal and Harry were joining us I began digging around in my bag for an armguard, but I don’t seem to have one.”
England stress that Mills and Gurney, who plays for Nottinghamshire, are not part of the squad. Yet Cook, perhaps acknowledging his own quick rise into the England team in 2006, following a sudden injury to Michael Vaughan, reckons the two have a great chance to impress the people who count.
“Tymal and Harry are here to offer practice against left-arm bowling,” Cook said. “But it is also a great opportunity for them to train with us. It is amazing how careers can change very quickly. By really impressing you just never know what can happen. They will be looking at it as an opportunity to press their claims.”
The No?6 spot in the batting order will also be contested, the aspirants being Jonny Bairstow and Gary Ballance. Whoever plays against the Western Australia Chairman’s XI on Thursday will probably play in the first Test. That means nets over the next few days, as they will be for the fast bowlers, are crucial. “All being well, it might be the case that whoever is selected at six for the first match will play in the first Test in Brisbane,” Cook said. “But you can never say for definite.”
