Gubbins shines as Compton searches for fulfilment

Middlesex 249 for 5 (Gubbins 82) trail Surrey 415 (Roy 110, Burns 88, Foakes 63*) by 166 runs
Scorecard

At 4.36pm on June 11 on a sun-drenched Lord's day, Nick Compton trudged back through the Long Room at Lord's. Compton had hit a trio of boundaries but, he knew, his 19 was nothing like sufficient to maintain the tenuous hold on his international career.

A few days after, Compton announced that he was taking a break from all cricket. The reaction was understandable. Few cricketers have devoted so much of themselves to getting a chance in Test cricket. Having been dropped for the first time, in 2013, Compton struggled for motivation at having his dream taken from him, on the brink of an Ashes series.

Yet he reoriented himself to returning to county cricket, moved back to Middlesex and, several thousand hours of hard work later, was recalled to the England side. A fine 85 in Durban helped to set up England's series triumph in South Africa, but Compton's Test returns deteriorated rapidly thereafter and, by the end of the series with Sri Lanka, to drop him from the side almost seemed an act of mercy.

Compton earned himself a second act in Test cricket but, given his age and an often painstaking style at the crease, there will surely be no third act. So if he is to find fulfilment in the shires, it will not come through rekindling his England ambitions. It will have to come, instead, from taking pleasure in county cricket for its own sake: thinking not about what he has lost, but what he still has.

And for all Compton's anguish about the curtailment of his international career, he has still returned to a position of remarkable privilege: batting at No. 3, on his home ground of Lord's, for the county best-placed to win the County Championship. It is not such a bad lot.

So at 12.37pm Compton entered Lord's by the very steps he had walked up disconsolately 55 days ago. He emerged with Middlesex having lost an early wicket in reply to Surrey's 415, and Tom Curran bowling a zesty new-ball spell. There are exactly the conditions in which Compton's defensive fortitude is so prized.

If Compton felt any vulnerability, Surrey were determined to pry on it. He was greeted by a short leg and three slips and, perhaps, a chirp or two. It might not be Test cricket, but Division One of the County Championship is still a ruthless place.

Compton's first ball was a good length delivery outside off stump which implored him to play. That he did, defending the ball to third slip. Two balls later Compton pushed a ball into the covers and ran a single that was sharp without quite being one of Kevin Pietersen's famed Red Bull runs.

When he returned from the lunch interval, it was Compton's ill-fortune to be stuck facing Tom Curran. A couple of times he played and missed, a couple of times Compton held his bat inside the line of the ball. When Curran dropped short, Compton rocked back and pulled him to the square leg boundary. But the illusion of release was deceptive: Stuart Meaker located extra pace, and Compton dragged the ball on. His off stump was left isolated and alone, and perhaps Compton felt the same as he walked back for 11 runs off 43 balls, the sort of innings that explained why he was here, rather than at Edgbaston, in the first place.

Some at Lord's believe that, in time, Nick Gubbins might go on to emulate Compton in playing for England. Unusually for an English opener, he seems particularly proficient against spin, and some sumptuous shots against Zafar Ansari demonstrated as much. One stood out: Gubbins took a step-down the wicket to meet the ball, flicked his wrists like he was playing a top-spin forehand, and stood to admire the ball clearing long-on for six.

The shot also spoke of Middlesex's determination not to allow Ansari to settle into a rhythm. But within three overs Ansari had snared two wickets: Dawid Malan, caught at short leg, and then Gubbins, bowled round his leg sweeping. Both wickets were vindication for Ansari bowling with more pace at the start of his spell, and the adjustment spoke of his shrewd cricketing brain and nurturing by Gareth Batty.

Batty himself bowled with typical guile, adjusting his pace subtly, gesticulating to his fielders to move an inch here or an inch there, and giving off the air of a man relishing the tussle. George Bailey's hard hands created an acute sense of vulnerability. On 2, Bailey edged to short leg but a sharp chance was put down; three runs later, Bailey inside-edged Meaker for four.

On a day in which 11 Australian wickets fell for 77 runs in a Test in Sri Lanka, Bailey could not restore the reputation of Australian batsmanship. Indeed, against spin he inspired scarcely more confidence than Australia's motley crew in Galle. After a few isolated glimpses of his assertive best, Bailey succumbed lbw, sweeping, Batty's exhortations to the umpire answered.

Now, at 204 for 5, Surrey could sense a hefty first innings lead, but John Simpson's adhesive half-century was infused with the grit that has lifted Middlesex to the summit of the Championship table. Yet this Lord's pitch is showing modest signs that it will deteriorate over the final two days, and Surrey's spin twins will believe they can take the bulk of the 15 Middlesex wickets that remain in this match. For all Middlesex's resolve, spectacular fielding from Rory Burns, flicking the ball back from the ropes to save two from the day's penultimate ball, was a testament to Surrey's spirit.