But the poor lad was pitched into the role of “death” bowler, which is not quite the equivalent of taking a last-minute penalty in the World Cup but has some of the same pressures. There is no place to hide, for one thing.
Every eye is watching, mistakes are magnified and the probability of mayhem increases with every ball. It is a place for solid virtues, which Bresnan quite possibly possesses, and infinite experience, which he does not.
This was his first one-day international; most of the crowd barely knew what he looked like, let alone how he played, and although the game did not rest on the outcome of his last over, the Sri Lanka innings, which had begun purposefully but stalled in the middle, was finely balanced. A profitable over, and the momentum would swing back their way; a wicket, and England would be more than satisfied with their work, despite conceding a woeful 42 extras.
By choice, Andrew Strauss, the second captain of the summer, would not have put the burden on such tender young shoulders. But the profligacy of Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett in the opening overs, allied to the flamboyant hitting of the hugely talented Upul Tharanga, forced his hand. England had to stem the flow, or Sri Lanka were heading for the horizon. As the tourists were reeled in, initially by a spell of quiet efficiency by Paul Collingwood, Strauss had to play his trump cards early and hope for the best. To his credit, Harmison responded with three wickets, but the damage had been done.
In one-day cricket almost every mistake has a knock-on effect, more swiftly understood than in a Test match. So, having used up Harmison and Plunkett, the most obvious candidates for the duty, Strauss had to gamble on his unsung, inexperienced Yorkshireman to bowl the fateful final over.
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In the previous over Bresnan had taken his first international wicket, Lasith Malinga bowled swinging wildly, but a wide had betrayed his nerves.
From far away the dulcet tones of another Yorkshireman echoed across Lord’s and into the England dressing room. “I want to play for England” the headline had run. This, more than the dance floor, was Darren Gough territory.
Bresnan froze; the gamble failed. He endured a torrid over, not helped by the chaotic thinking of the England wicketkeeper, Geraint Jones, who twice took the wrong option as Sri Lanka scrambled a bye.
In trying to field one of the wicketkeeper’s throws for an easy run-out, Bresnan trod on the stumps. To compound the error, he had bowled a no-ball. The ball before, both batsmen, Muttiah Muralitharan and Dilhara Fernando, had arrived at the same end and Bresnan was left with time to throw down the stumps at the bowler’s end to finish off the innings. He missed by a mile. It was like watching the Sunday thirds.
In all probability, when the World Cup comes around eight months from now, Bresnan will be sitting with his feet up or learning his trade in a southern summer. Injuries have wrecked coach Duncan Fletcher’s plans, whatever they were. Bresnan and James Dalrymple, in only his second one-day international, were thrust into the side out of desperation. Fletcher’s manner on the eve of the five-match NatWest series was unusually downbeat. Yet it is still hard to understand why a posse of players — Kabir Ali, Vikram Solanki and Owais Shah among them — had been so freely discarded after the defeat in India.
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The old policy of picking on a whim seems to have found favour once more. England were supposed to be preparing for the 2007 World Cup the moment they were dumped out of the last one, but, three years on, there is no real understanding of the basic principles of the one-day game. Sri Lanka were the slicker team by a distance.
Part of the fault is in the thinking. When pinch-hitters were the rage, England were still playing by numbers. For a time they favoured two sides, one for each form of the game. It didn’t work. Now that the move is back to a common team ready for either game, England seem intent on heading the other way again.
The poor standard of one-day domestic cricket, where the old bits-and-pieces cricketer still holds sway, doesn’t help much. There is not much raw material, certainly no specialist one-day players in the mould of Neil Fairbrother. Collingwood is the nearest, but he has developed into a more than serviceable Test cricketer, and though his spell yesterday was easily the most economic, he failed with the bat when England needed him most.
So it was left to Marcus Trescothick and an enterprising innings by Dalrymple to haul England towards respectability. The 20-run margin of defeat might well have been 120. England were never in the hunt. The truth is that England do not play enough one-day cricket and do not care enough. Winning the World Cup will come a poor second to retaining the Ashes.