James Vince hasn’t grabbed his opportunities the way he wanted: Ed Smith, England chief selector

The inability of James Vince to convert good starts in limited-overs Internationals into a big knock has cost him his place in the England T20I squad against Pakistan, says National chief selector Ed Smith. According to Smith, Dawid Malan’s return to fitness has also contributed to Vince’s axing from the squad. Malan, who has been […]
 
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James Vince hasn’t grabbed his opportunities the way he wanted: Ed Smith, England chief selector

The inability of James Vince to convert good starts in limited-overs Internationals into a big knock has cost him his place in the England T20I squad against Pakistan, says National chief selector Ed Smith.

According to Smith, Dawid Malan’s return to fitness has also contributed to Vince’s axing from the squad. Malan, who has been England’s in-form top-order batsman in T20I cricket over the past year, has been favoured over Vince, whose scores of 25, 16 and 16 in the ODI series against Ireland were simply not good enough to make it to this squad.

Malan was left out of the squad in the ODI series against Ireland due to a calf injury, but he has now fully recovered and looks to be in fine form after scoring a double hundred for Yorkshire against Derbyshire in the latest round of the Bob Willis Trophy.

“Dawid Malan was in the last T20 squad in South Africa, played in the last T20 game. Joe Denly was unwell and Dawid came into that game. Dawid was in the squad and James wasn’t at that time and that’s how it stays. I think James is a very talented player. At his best, James, we all know has the skill to look absolutely at home in international cricket,” said Smith.

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“I’m not saying anything different to you here that I said to James on the phone which is it’s just a question of him grabbing his opportunities. That’s one thing he’d be the first to say, and I think he has said it publicly, that for someone of his talent and his class he probably hasn’t grabbed his opportunities in the way he would have liked to have done. If they come around again I’m sure he’d be absolutely determined to really grab it.”

James Vince hasn’t grabbed his opportunities the way he wanted: Ed Smith, England chief selector

Despite an average of 9.60 and a strike rate of just under a 100 in his 12 T20I matches, Joe Denly has been given a run ahead of Lancashire’s hard-hitting batsman Liam Livingstone.  Although Denly can also bowl leg-spin, he has only bowled eleven overs in total for England in T20I cricket, four of which came against Sri Lanka in October 2018 when he took 4 for 19.

Denly, though, would have played in the ODIs against Ireland only for a back spasm ruling him out before the first match of that series. He made two half-centuries in two innings in England’s previous ODI series in South Africa and was also a part, albeit with less personal success, of the T20I series against the Proteas. Although his replacement for the games against Ireland, Sam Billings, took his chance, Denly’s return for the T20Is against Pakistan, like Malan’s, is a consistent choice.

James Vince hasn’t grabbed his opportunities the way he wanted: Ed Smith, England chief selector

Joe Denly was ruled out of the ODI series against Ireland due to a back spasm

He certainly has the backing of both Smith and captain Eoin Morgan. During the Ireland series, Morgan said that rather than thinking the modest records of the likes of Denly and Billings mean they have “had their chance” England valued the experience they offer as they look ahead to the next global tournaments.

“We’ll continue to give opportunities to those guys we feel might have an impact in selection on the next two T20 World Cups or the next 50-over World Cup,” Morgan said at the time.

Smith spoke on the same, “I think Eoin put it really well. Some of those players who haven’t played that much in their early 30s could have their best days ahead of them. Think he referenced Joe as an example. Eoin also pointed out he doesn’t move like a 34-year-old; he’s a very agile fielder and a multi-dimensional fielder. There are still some spaces in the T20 side that we’re looking at and Joe’s in contention for one of those places.

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“It’s an incredibly difficult squad to break into. As we’re looking at putting together a squad, people who can do more than one thing gain are an advantage as they can fill different roles. Moving forward, Joe has a chance of breaking into that T20 set-up as we look at World Cups and this is another opportunity for him to break into this set-up.”

One player who could soon be going from the white-ball squad to the Test party is leg-spinner Adil Rashid whose form in the ODIs against Ireland was exceptional. He is still getting back to full fitness after a shoulder injury which hampered him during last summer’s World Cup, but England and Rashid seem keen to explore a potential return to Test action. The 32-year-old last played Test cricket in January 2019.

On Rashid, Smith said, “The main thing with Adil is, he’s made really good strides with his shoulder injury and he’s developed really well in recovery from that injury. His form is really good in white-ball cricket. We’ve all seen the skill and the mastery that he’s displaying. We’ll work with Adil and Yorkshire and see how his shoulder is and see if he is ready to play four or five-day cricket.

“[He’s] Coming back form a reasonably serious injury. There’s a difference between bowling 10 overs and bowling 100 overs. He’s still working on that physical side, but I think in the long-term Adil still has aspirations to play for England in all forms.”