Vince Building Formidable Case

James Vince has had a lot to celebrate in 2014, but is an international call-up on the cards?

With all the tumult surrounding England’s cricket team ever since it followed up Ashes humiliation with World T20 capitulation, it has been no secret that places are up for grabs. Players, notably Kevin Pietersen, are being moved on, and spaces are becoming available. It has never been more profitable to be an in-form county cricketer. Down in Hampshire, there is a young man who is becoming just that.

James Vince, 23, is the man of the moment in first-class cricket at present. Today he and his Hampshire team-mates butchered Essex in Southampton with Vince playing a starring role with a superb 240 to set up a declaration. He is in red-hot form at present, and with England’s batting line-up, particularly in the shorter formats, uncertain, Vince is building a case that is rapidly becoming formidable.

Vince – tall, yet elegant, and reminiscent of Michael Vaughan at his best – has become the first player to move past 1,000 first-class runs this season. In fact, only Daryl Mitchell aside in the entire country has even passed 800. Vince’s average of 80.46 is bettered only by Mitchell and Ian Cockbain in Division Two, and Cockbain has played only one match. In the T20 Blast, Vince’s 220 runs have come at 44, with three successive half-centuries at the end of May. Not since Nick Compton in 2012 have England had to sit up and take notice of a county player as much as now.

Test cricket may elude Vince this summer, with Joe Root, Gary Ballance and Moeen Ali all having given good accounts of themselves in the opening Test at Lord’s against Sri Lanka, and with Ben Stokes still to return to the side. However, the one-day game is a different story. There, England’s batting has been vulnerable for a long, long period of time, and there is room for enterprising young talent to emerge.

With a top three of Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Ballance, the criticism has been leveled that England are too slow, cautious in the PowerPlay overs and lacking the presence and power to make the necessary 300+ scores in Australia and New Zealand in the upcoming World Cup. The clamour for Alex Hales to join the ranks grows with every match, but last month, Vaughan it was who championed another young strokemaker on the county circuit.

In the County Championship this season, Vince’s runs have come at a mightily impressive strike rate of 81.09. For context, Pietersen’s ODI strike rate was only marginally better at 86.58. In T20 cricket this season, Vince is scoring at 142 runs per 100 balls. Like Bell, Vince’s runs do not come from power hitting, but classical batsmanship and eye-catching stroke play. He is a quicker, more aggressive Bell, in essence, and if possible even more fluid.

As such Vince is a rare commodity. He is what the selectors are craving for. Somebody who can score runs at a decent rate without having to play expansive or high-risk shots. England’s batting staggers between the two extremes, with the top three all low-risk accumulators who struggle to accelerate followed by the high-risk middle order that is rarely a safeguard for a crisis. With Vince at three and Root at four, England may find a smooth transition that has been lacking for as long as anyone can remember.

A top seven of Hales, Bell, Vince, Root, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and Ravi Bopara/Stokes looks formidable, and well-balanced. With Vince and Hales at the top of the order, there is less pressure of the over-burdened Morgan and Buttler. Morgan, who himself is making a strong name for himself at Middlesex this year having made 191 this week, would captain the side. Bell would be freed up by not having to score Cook’s runs for him. Bopara or Stokes at seven allows for five front-line bowlers. With Vince the pivot, able to make 120+ scores at a good pace, England could aim well beyond the 270-280 totals they usually settle for.

Of course, there are some caveats to add. Vince plays for Hampshire, a Division Two outfit in the County Championship. The standard of bowling is more Bangladesh than South Africa, and the division lacks an array of lightening-fast bowlers or mystery spinners. Vince would still be unprepared for the challenge of facing Saeed Ajmal on a Dubai turner, or Mitchell Johnson in a Perth flyer. He is untested against the very best.

However, this is a new era. England have nothing to lose. They have a new ODI coach, and low expectations in major global tournaments. Why persist with the sluggish status quo and limp out at the quarter finals when you could throw in some youth and excitement and if you still lose, nothing has been ventured nor gained? They must follow the example of the England football team and operate a bold new youth policy. Vince could be the cricket team’s Raheem Sterling, the form player looking to light up the biggest stage.

Either way, for now at least, Vince is aiming a strong hint towards the selectors.

 

 

 

 

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