Middlesex batsmen face uncertain future

This article was written for deepextracover.com. Published here due to ongoing server issues limiting access to the site.

Middlesex remain firmly in the hunt for a first County Championship title since the days of Mike Gatting and Phil Tufnell, even after this week’s disappointing defeat at Derby. However, the table obscures the fact that the county’s batsmen have, on the whole, endured a nightmare season. With four games to go a number of them face something of an uncertain future.

A quick gaze at the Middlesex batting averages shows how reliant they have been on Chris Rogers and Sam Robson, the preferred opening pair. The ‘two Rs’ have scored five of the seven centuries and racked up over 1,800 runs between them. In addition they are the only two players to average over 40 from a reasonable number of innings and have a double-hundred apiece. One of the other three figure scores has come from Adam Voges, who has made a decent fist of deputising for the absent Rogers, but will return to Australia before the visit of Somerset next week.

The two men most in need of a good look at themselves are Joe Denly and David Malan. Both were once tipped as future Test cricketers, and neither have a poor First-Class record all told. But this year they average 28 and 15 respectively in competitive cricket against the red ball. Malan has rightly been dropped and, after a poor showing in the East Midlands, Denly ought to be next. The former Kent-man, Denly, has tended to get himself out after making a start. A couple of Second XI fixtures should hopefully snap him out of the habit and he can come back strong next season.

With Malan it is more complicated. Whilst he scores mountains of runs in one-day cricket, where catchers are often not in place, he is suspect outside his off stump in the longer format of the game. Division One bowling attacks appear to have sussed this and so it might be that some technical alterations are required if he is to get his game back on track. Whether he does that with Middlesex or elsewhere remains to be seen. It is believed that he is not best pleased to find himself out of favour and, despite his one-day returns, the club might allow him to seek a new start elsewhere at the end of the season.

Another underperformer is Eoin Morgan. The England international has been available for just two Championship matches but his performances in all formats have been well below par. He has looked far removed from the free-flowing batsman he is best known as, scratching around for 20s and 30s before finding new ways to get out.

Given Morgan’s involvement with the Indian Premier League, a broken finger and international call-ups it is perhaps easy to understand why the Irishman has contributed little of note in a short stint which will now end with the start of the limited-overs leg of Australia’s tour. However, it is a pattern that is all too familiar to a county membership that he has rarely endeared himself to. He is, perhaps unfairly, often accused of disinterest and has done nothing to dispel that over the last month or so. Should he not find form soon he could find his England one-day spot in jeopardy.

The curiosity of the situation is that Middlesex are not exactly short of batsman. Indeed, after Andrew Balbirnie and Ryan Higgins were recently granted full contracts for the first time, there is something of an excess. Adam Rossington, a key performer in white ball cricket and for the Second XI, has not featured this season. Paul Stirling, the 13th best one-day international batsman according to the ICC rankings, has played just once. Adam London and Nick Gubbins are also on the staff.

Such an embarrassment of riches ought to be a good thing but it could cause problems down the line. London, a technically correct opener who has been prolific in Second XI cricket, recently trialled for Hampshire against Bangladesh A and might well depart at the end of the season. Others like Rossington and Stirling are important to the county’s one-day plans but will surely be well aware that their best hope of regular four-day cricket probably lies elsewhere.

With four important matches remaining, three against struggling opponents before a potential title showdown with Yorkshire in Leeds, some changes to the make-up of the top six are surely needed. Indeed, at least one will be forced with Rogers returning to the top of the order and Voges vacating the number three position. John Simpson, who has opened in the past and had a steady season at six, could well move up to first drop. With Neil Dexter at four that would make room for Rossington to come into the side and perhaps for Balbirnie, in good form for the Second XI, to debut at number six. Alternatively Malan could get a stay of execution and return to the team down the order, where his technique is less likely to come under the scanner.

It should not all be doom and gloom. Middlesex are currently ranked the second best team in the country and played enough good cricket this season to show that they are not their by luck. However, if the table remains unchanged it will be easy to see why they have not quite been able to pull off a first title since 1995: the ‘two Rs’ aside, the batting has not nearly been good enough.