Luke Wright on Sam Cook: 'He's the one top-order batters fear most'

It's worth noting that Sam Cook is only 27, because - given the narrative that has pursued him throughout his remarkable county career - you'd be forgiven for assuming he was at least four years older.

Cook has been worthy of an England call-up since at least 2019, when - aged 22 - his 32 wickets at 21.03 helped propel Essex to their second County Championship title in three years. And with every season since, his skill has been honed like his focus on the top of off stump, to the extent that when he claimed his 300th first-class wicket for Essex against Nottinghamshire last month, he did so with an average of less than 19.

And yet, the more those wickets piled up, the further from the Test conversation Cook seemed to get. It was as if his success, achieved without express pace or cloud-snagging height, doomed him to membership of that sub-genre of county seamers dominated by David Masters and Alan Richardson, rather than earning him the sort of plaudits reserved for Chris "Wizard" Woakes, the man whose absence has finally created the conditions for his call-up.

The nadir was arguably reached after the 2021-22 Ashes, when the folly of taking a platoon of English right-arm medium-pacers to Australia - Mark Wood being the honourable exception - was exposed by a second 4-0 series thumping in as many trips. Pace in abundance, and failing that, genuine points of difference, such as Josh Hull's left-arm angle and beanpole release point, became the requisites for selection.

But, as Luke Wright, the national selector, explained on Friday after Cook's maiden call-up to the Test squad, genuine skill can be a point of difference in itself, when it comes to creating the sort of "complementary attack" that England will need to compete across ten defining Tests against India and Australia this year.

"He's performed outstandingly well, consistently," Wright said. "We've obviously made no bones about looking to add some pace into the attack and, yes, at 85-86mph, he's not up there which is fine. What he has got is incredible skill.

"The thing I like about Cooky is he's not just a swing bowler. He swings and seams the ball as well, and he's actually a bigger lad than some people realize. He gets bounce. He's obviously known for his accuracy, but you speak to any top-order batters around county cricket, he's the one that everyone fears the most."

And so now, unless Brendon McCullum has other ideas for his final XI, that chance will now come against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, the venue where Cook produced arguably the defining performance of his career to date.

Against Nottinghamshire in early April last year, in the same round of Championship fixtures in which Sam Northeast made 334 not out at Lord's, Cook manipulated the Kookaburra ball with an aplomb that no other bowler in the country could match. He served up a decisive 10-wicket haul, including 6 for 14 in a crushing second-innings display, at which point the pigeonholing ceased.

"He's non-stop done everything that's been asked of him, including with the Kookaburra ball when he's gone to Sri Lanka or Australia on the A tour. He's kept getting performances and knocking that door down. He's been outstanding"Luke Wright on Sam Cook

His selection for this winter's Lions tour of Australia was a case in point. Four years earlier, and despite a season's haul of 58 wickets at 14.43, including a stunning 10 for 41 as Northamptonshire were beaten in barely more than a day at Chelmsford, Cook had been a notable absentee from that trip Down Under, and even when he was belatedly sent an invite, he alone of the uncapped seamers in England's shadow Ashes squad was omitted from the unofficial Test against Australia A.

This time, on the other hand, he was front and centre of the action, claiming a creditable 3 for 58 in 21 overs of a match that was ultimately ruined by the Lions' first-innings batting. Before that, however, he trapped Australia A's opener, Tim Ward, lbw for 0 with the fifth ball of the match, thereby proving instantly that his wicket-to-wicket methods could yet have a role beyond this home summer.

"He's non-stop done everything that's been asked of him," Wright said, "including with the Kookaburra ball when he's gone to Sri Lanka or Australia on the A tour. He's kept getting performances and knocking that door down. He's been outstanding. So yes, he's had to be patient, but there've been some fine bowlers ahead of him as well. So I'm delighted for him, and I'm sure he's hoping to get the opportunity in that XI and take it with both hands."

It is true that circumstances have stacked up to offer Cook this opportunity. The enforced retirement of James Anderson was one aspect, given that his lock on the role of low-80s mph skill merchant had allowed no room for others to take on that mantle. And that, to a certain extent, included Woakes - himself now 36 - whose wiles would have been called upon to lead the line this summer had he not been missing from action since the SA20 in January.

But there's been loyalty and perseverance at play from Cook himself too. He could have taken the franchise shilling this winter gone, with offers on the table from at least three competitions around the world. But instead, with his lines of communication with the England hierarchy open - including with Wright and Rob Key the managing director - he committed himself to Lions availability and is now reaping the rewards of that faith.

"From my point of view, it's been two years of working with Cooky that we've spoken regularly," Wright said. "He reached out as soon as any other bowler got picked, and we've kept that dialogue going, explaining what our thinking was.

"I know Rob Key's spoken a lot at length about having a complementary attack. Before him, we had Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad there. Then he's had Woakesy and then Pottsy [Matthew Potts].

"But we spoke to him at the end of the summer, because we knew we had that Lions trip to Australia. I said to him, I'd love him to go and keep pushing his case, but it was a tough decision for anyone.

"He'd already lined up some franchise cricket but, fair play to him, he rang me back a few days later and said, 'Look, England's my number one. I'll give up the franchise, and I want to try and do everything I can'. He came away to that Australia trip and performed well again, and I'm delighted for him that he's going to get an opportunity."

His selection will also be a boost for the often-beleaguered county circuit, especially in light of England's recent left-field thinking, most specifically the fast-tracking of Shoaib Bashir and Hull on the strength of their "high ceilings".

He will approach the crease from a significantly lower trajectory than either, but as the likes of Vernon Philander and Mohammad Abbas have amply shown in recent years, there can always be a role for relentless accuracy, allied to high skill and a perfect seam presentation.

And even if Cook will hear the thunder in the distance, as England's absentee 90mph fast bowlers begin to be drip-fed back into narrative ahead of Australia - among them Wood, Brydon Carse and maybe even Jofra Archer during the Lions matches against India in June - there's the small matter of five Tests against India on home soil to factor in first.

This, after all, was perhaps the key mistake made by England in the lead-up to the last Ashes in 2021-22. The failure to focus on the contest at hand back then bled directly into their shortcomings Down Under. Winning the here-and-now will suffice for Cook. He's waited long enough to be given that chance to do so.