Tom Abell serves reminder of ability as Somerset hint at return to form with bat

Tom Abell raised his bat to the Somerset dressing room then breathed a sigh of relief. His unbeaten hundred against Surrey at the Kia Oval was an overdue return to form and an innings that offered his side some reassurance after a miserable run with the bat dating back to the end of last season.

Somerset's totals this season have made for grim reading: 180, 135, 109 and 154. Since the start of the divisional phase of last year's Championship, they had passed 200 only twice in 12 completed innings and lost six games in a row for the first time since the 1960s. They have played on some challenging pitches, but the statistics are grisly enough to make even England's top order wince.

Abell has worn the look of a wartime leader throughout that run, fronting up with his brow furrowed as the local media demanded answers after each collapse. His own form had disintegrated: across his previous 14 first-class innings, including two for the England Lions against Australia A, he had managed only 109 runs at 7.79.

After the drought came a deluge: Abell surpassed that tally in a day in the south London sun, whipping Surrey's seamers through midwicket when they attacked his stumps and driving elegantly through extra cover if they strayed too wide. When he walked off at the close, he had 121 of Somerset's 283 for 6, a scoreline which vindicated his decision to bat first on a green, but slowish pitch.

Abell had looked in complete control until he reached the 90s, when his poise briefly deserted him. On 95, he edged Jordan Clark just short of gully; on 97, he watched Ollie Pope fling himself to his right at second slip but fail to cling onto a thick outside edge; on 99, he heard Ben Foakes and Reece Topley plead for a leg-side strangle, then saw Martin Saggers shake his head.

When he tucked Topley off his pads to reach 100, Abell acknowledged the applause from his team-mates, embraced Josh Davey, and took a deep breath that exuded reassurance rather than rapture. This was only his second first-class hundred since August 2020, and served as a reminder of his quality, to himself more than anyone.

"I've obviously been in a pretty tough place for the last couple of weeks, really," he said at the close. "I was desperate, particularly as captain, to lead from the front with my batting and I've not been satisfied with my performances.

"I've been batting, really searching for something. I felt like I've not been in a great place with my batting so the main emotion was just relief, to be honest. I appreciate the love from the boys as well up there. It meant a lot to me."

Abell has been discussed in some quarters as a left-field candidate for England's Test captaincy, a suggestion which has mainly served to highlight the paucity of options. His recent run of form underlines the obvious problem with handing the role to someone who is not sure of their place - how could anyone survive the scrutiny that would fall on their batting as well as their leadership? - but his leadership credentials are obvious and he has served Somerset with distinction.

The thought emerged when he was compiling a 103-run stand for the fourth wicket with James Hildreth that these might be the two outstanding uncapped batters of their respective generations. Hildreth's dismissal, when he slapped the final delivery with the old ball - a wide, non-turning offbreak from Will Jacks - to backward point for a flashy 54, perhaps underlined why the selectors have never called.

That was the first of three wickets in 22 balls, a sequence which brought Surrey back into the game after a day of hard graft: Clark had Steven Davies caught behind, looking to drive his second ball to the cover boundary, while Topley, the pick of the attack, was rewarded with a cheap wicket of his own as Craig Overton cut a short ball to point.

Sam Curran, returning to professional cricket after an absence of more than six months that saw him miss the T20 World Cup, the Ashes, two Caribbean tours and the ongoing IPL, was limited to 10 overs, with an abundance of caution over his comeback after a stress fracture in his lower back. He bowled tightly, probing in the off-stump channel, but went wicketless.

Curran was one of six seamers - including Ryan Patel's medium pace - that Surrey used on the first day, as they went in without a specialist spinner for the third consecutive game. The fact that Gareth Batty, the erstwhile president of the Spinners' Union, is their head coach makes the decision particularly intriguing; Daniel Moriarty and Amar Virdi have bowled 54 wicketless overs between them for the second XI this week, but must feel disheartened about the make-up of this attack.