In these days of ubiquitous coaching programmes and elite pathways, it is refreshing when a little good old-fashioned serendipity throws a cricketer a shot at the big time. Liam Dawson has found himself the significant beneficiary not of one Zafar Ansari injury but two, the first propelling him into the Lions squad last winter, the second into the Test team here in India. Yesterday he took full advantage.
In what constituted a further slice of luck, he found himself batting on the one of the more benign surfaces England have faced on this tour, though not so benign that Ishant Sharma could not clatter him on the head with a well directed bouncer with the second ball he faced.
No damage done, Dawson dusted himself off and got his head down, finding little further to alarm him during a stay of almost four hours to help England, resuming on 284 for four, to 477, a score that even they ought to be able to convert into a draw.
Dawson is the sort of cricketer who has not got where he is today by passing up an opportunity. The scoreline may make unhappy reading but he is now the third England player to debut in this series and the third to make a score, after Haseeb Hameed’s 82 in Rajkot and Keaton Jennings’ century in Mumbai. There are worse places to start your Test career than India: at least, if you are a batsman.
“Dawson stared down Kohli after his throw from fine leg nearly hit him in the face
Dawson’s little piece of history was that his unruffled, unbeaten 66 off 148 balls represented the highest score by an England player making his debut in a position lower than No 7, passing a record previously held by Darren Gough.
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An unlikely route to the Test arena started with club cricket in Chippenham, Wiltshire, a county that had been the birthplace of only two previous England Test cricketers. A first-class debut for Hampshire aged 17, and twice dismissing Kevin Pietersen for golden ducks in 2012, suggests a fast learner but Dawson’s career has met various frustrations including, last year, sending himself out on loan to Essex.
When Ansari broke his thumb late last year it opened up a place on a Lions trip to Dubai which was filled by Dawson, who secured the backing of Andy Flower with some stellar all-round performances in white-ball cricket. Twelve months later, it has been Ansari’s back problems that led to Dawson being summoned from a stint with Rangpur Riders at the Bangladesh Premier League. “When I went out to Bangladesh, Test cricket didn’t even cross my mind,” he said.
He was, in fact, close to pipping Ansari for the role of left-arm spinner from the outset, having impressed Trevor Bayliss on his England debuts in Twenty20 (taking a wicket with his fifth ball) and ODI cricket in the summer. For all the good that he did yesterday, it will be on his efforts with the ball that he will be judged.
In that regard he began brightly. Given one over at the end of the day, he induced false shots from both openers, an echo of Graeme Swann’s double-wicket strike in his opening salvo on his debut here in 2008.
Easy pitch perhaps, but it was not an easy situation in which he found himself at the start. In the very first over of the day, Ben Stokes was drawn forward by a ball of slower pacer from Ravichandran Ashwin — who bowled slower than previously throughout — to feather a catch to the keeper, and not long afterwards Jos Buttler misjudged the length of a ball from Sharma and was leg-before.
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Then, with Dawson still getting himself settled and having narrowly escaped giving Ashwin a return catch, Moeen Ali, the overnight century-maker, was bounced out by Umesh Yadav, another indication that the pitch was not a total featherbed.
Why India did not target Moeen more with the short ball on day one was a mystery, but Yadav’s fourth successive bouncer produced the Pavlovian pull from Moeen into the hands of deep mid-wicket. This is an issue Moeen must address but he nevertheless batted beautifully for his 146, the highest innings of the series for England.
At 321 for seven, England were in danger of subsiding to an inadequate total, but Dawson and Adil Rashid now formed an implausibly resilient partnership worth 108 from 249 balls. While Dawson’s technique is fundamentally sound, Rashid’s is infuriatingly eccentric, based on a desire to whip everything through leg with the arm movements of a driver turning left with hands glued to the wheel.
More than once a leading edge nearly led to his downfall but luck was with him and he calmed down. He also took control of the strike during an afternoon session in which he scored 50 of the last 72 runs added with Dawson. Dawson, in fact, was happy to drop anchor, contributing only 28 of the 100 runs added in the session on a field left heavy and ploughed by Cyclone Vardah.
Dawson also stared down Virat Kohli after Kohli’s throw on the turn from fine leg nearly hit him in the face. No malice was intended but umpire Marais Erasmus spoke to the India captain anyway, a minor victory for an England side who feel they are the ones ticked off first.
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Kolhi may have persevered with spin too long and he secured the breakthrough by recalling Yadav, who tempted Rashid into driving at a ball of width when just one shy of equaling his Test best of 61.
Dawson found more useful allies in Stuart Broad and Jake Ball during a phase of play in which Dawson unleashed some of his best strokes, including a sumptuous drive on the up against Sharma and a six over mid-wicket off Ashwin, the ball caught by a substitute fielder who tumbled into the rope.
This was in an over that cost 17, Ball also striking a six over long on, to leave Ashwin nursing figures of one for 151, his worst on the ground he regards as his favourite.