Fisher embraces stand-by status as England's Ashes winter begins

For the last few weeks, Matthew Fisher has been working out how to bowl to his good mate, Harry Brook.

The pair came through the ranks at Yorkshire's Academy a year apart. Their first meeting took place in the Headingley indoor nets, when a 14-year-old Brook played Fisher's bouncers with annoying ease.

"He played it fine, and he started pissing me off," remembers Fisher. "So I started properly bumping him, and he still played that all right." Fisher, 15 at the time, had already made his List A debut for Yorkshire.

They will lock horns again in Lilac Hill, Perth, on November 13 when, as part of their Ashes preparations, Brook and the England Test squad will take on Fisher and the England Lions in a three-day game. With the Lions on hand to supplement the main squad, on a tour that will run alongside the first two Tests, Fisher - as the most experienced seamer in the group - knows a strong impression in that crucial warm-up match could reap immediate rewards.

"In the exact setting four years ago, I bowled lovely and we saw what happened at the end of the winter," Fisher says, referencing the Test cap he was awarded on the West Indies tour in 2022, after showcasing his skills against England for the Lions in the build-up to the 2021-22 Ashes. "So I know first-hand what bowling in those games can do.

"You do have sleepless nights when you dream about bowling at my mate Brooky at the minute. It is good stuff because you're trying to get out people who you want to impress, so it is quite good that I'm already thinking about how to get him out."

It is over three years since that one Test. Fisher took a solitary wicket - John Campbell, with his second ball - on an unforgiving Bridgetown surface. That appearance came as England sought to move on from James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Unsuccessfully, as it would turn out.

England's then-selectors had leant towards Fisher due to his high release point, as a six-foot-two seamer, and a knack of dismissing accomplished batters. It was a pre-cursor to the preferences that Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have since put front and centre of their recruitment. Unfortunately for Fisher, he spent the first Bazball summer of 2022 nursing a stress fracture of the back.

"I never felt like I (had the shirt) - playing one game, being on a tour, trying to follow Broad and Anderson," admits Fisher. "I never felt like that was mine.

"On the Lions trip before that trip, I felt like I was building into a Test bowler. But unfortunately you can't control having a stress fracture sometimes. For anyone who's had a stressie, it doesn't just take the time for your back to heal, it's the time to then trust your body again and think that every time you feel your back, it doesn't have to be your worst-case scenario.

"But in those two years, anything you feel you are worried, because it is such a long injury that you don't want it to happen again. In terms of intensity and snapping through your action, you're not quite there, which we all know - if you're down on that - it makes you half the bowler. It has been nice to build that back up naturally. The lads in that [Ashes] squad are incredible bowlers, but it's about being ready when an opportunity does come."

Though it's only a Lions call-up, Fisher, at 27, sees this selection as a reward, and vindication for the moves he has made. He bulked up heading into 2023, and the following year ended what had been a life-long association with Yorkshire to sign for Surrey.

Though Surrey were unable to make it four County Championship titles in a row, Fisher had his most productive first-class summer to date. His 31 dismissals in 11 appearances were the second-most for the club, of which 11 came against Nottinghamshire at the Kia Oval in a thrilling title decider that Surrey lost, ultimately handing their opponents the Division One crown.

"I would give all those wickets for us to have won the title, but it was nice personally to click into gear. It was out of the blue.

"The chats I had, it was such a difficult decision to move. But everything I've moved for - and the reasons - getting selected on this is kind of why I did it.

"It was to have a fresh environment, fresh coaches, fresh players - different perspectives. As we know, the strength of Yorkshire is that it thinks it knows what it's doing, which is great. But there is also a weakness to that sometimes; there is a real DNA to Yorkshire, which is brilliant, and I am proud to have played there, proud to have been capped by Yorkshire.

"I still look out for all the lads. But I think sometimes when you broaden your reach, you realise that you hadn't thought about it like that. Going into a different gym, having gone into the same gym for 12 years, it's kind of good. It's been great."

That Fisher excelled during this season's Kookaburra-ball rounds - 10 wickets in his three goes with it - undoubtedly helped his cause for a spot in Australia. Previous experience using it on Lions and development tours gave him an edge.

"It's a mindset thing for me. That was one of the conversations that we had at Surrey: yes, there's a stigma around it in English cricket, and the pitches don't allow for it to have good games of cricket sometimes. But it is also a case of how you become more rounded as a bowler. The purpose of what the ECB brought in and why they brought it in, we are seeing why it happened.

"We felt like getting tighter to the stumps was better because, if you think about the science behind it, [the ball] has to do less if you're in tight. I definitely think that my experiences in the Lions bowling with it in the last four or five years has made me better with it. It's one of those where, if you're open to it, commit to it, bowl more with it, you get better at it. It's like anything in life."

Fisher's enhanced performances have come through a lot of hard work, and a greater appreciation of his body. Lions head coach Andrew Flintoff and men's performance director Ed Barney have been impressed with his drive at Loughborough these past few weeks, often in as early as 7am to do strength and mobility work in the gym ahead of bowling sessions later that day.

Though Fisher has always been willing to put the work in, an extra motivation came when he lost his pace bowling development contract in 2023.

"Keysy [Rob Key, managing director] spoke to me at the end of that contract and said they wanted me to stand on my own two feet for a year and see how I get on. It was nice to get stuck into everything at Surrey last winter after a few winters with the Lions and get to know everyone. I feel like that really helped me settle for the summer. The goal in the back of your mind is to get picked for higher honours, so it was a nice surprise."

He has enjoyed working with Flintoff, who he believes can take him from a decent county bowler to the next step. "Maybe going to a place that I've not been before", as Fisher himself puts it. "What Fred is really good at is trying to get the last five or 10 per cent out of people. I think that's something he can help me with."

He may well have to access that this winter if a further promotion comes. Friends and family have encouraged him to dream of barging his way into the Ashes squad this winter. But Fisher, through his own experiences, wants to keep his feet on the ground.

"From 17 (when he made his first-class debut for Yorkshire) to 23, I was probably obsessed about playing for England. Because I achieved stuff quite young and people were talking about it, you get obsessed with it.

"I have got to the point of accepting that, if I am a good county bowler for the rest of my career and hopefully win a couple of Championships with Surrey, then I am fine with that as a baseline. Anything else above that is perfect for what I want to achieve.

"Accepting that as a baseline is not me not pushing boundaries to make myself better. I think it's a healthier way of looking at it."