Schofield, Schofield give us a twirl

Thanks in the main to the rain’s stubborn refusal to stay primarily on the plain, it has been hard to recall an English summer less likely to prove a source of nostalgia than this one. Subtract Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s monumental patience, Kevin Pietersen’s fearlessness, the rise of Adil Rashid, Ottis Gibson’s 10-47 and Kent’s fielding on Twenty20 Finals Day, and there wouldn’t even be any contenders for the time capsule. Yet even in a season worth treasuring, today would have been one of the better days.

The recall of Chris Schofield to the international fold, for next month’s official dignification of Twenty20 in South Africa, was half the reason for this. Dropping out of the professional game and returning is a trick few have accomplished. Even fewer – Paul Taylor and Ian Ward spring to mind – have come back with a sufficient bang to earn national selection. Small wonder that, upon hearing of his selection for the 30-strong longlist, his mother burst into tears. That her determined son happens be a legspinner spoke to the romantic in us all.

No less heartening was the concurrent showing at Scarborough for England Under-19 of two teenage twirlers, Essex’s Tom Westley (18) and Hampshire’s Liam Dawson (17), who had shared eight wickets to make their Pakistani counterparts follow-on on Sunday then scooped up the first five in the second innings, setting up an innings victory.

That such crumbs should supply any sort of comfort whatsoever tells you all you need to know about the state of English spin. Consider the brewing debate over how many slowies the selectors should nominate for the winter’s three Tests in Sri Lanka. On the basis that Michael Vaughan and Pietersen offer more loop, flight and enterprise than most of the regular county set, does anybody bar Monty Panesar DEMAND selection? Not that I am aware of, hence the likelihood that Rashid will be blooded even earlier than Schofield was. And the latter now accepts that, at 21, he was immature, perhaps a tad arrogant, and that coping with expectations was way beyond his ken.

Not that we have any justifiable reason for expectation. The last world-beating England off-spinner was Jim Laker half a century ago; the last world-beating England leggie was BT Bosanquet, a century ago. Of the dozen spinners with 200 Test wickets, the only Pom is Derek Underwood, and his offerings might just as easily have been characterised as medium-paced cutters. South Africa are even more unblessed, yet Daniel Vettori’s membership of that elite is proof that seamer-friendly conditions should be no bar to entry.

Fitness permitting, Monty should gain admission to the club, and Ashley Giles probably would have done so but for the physical ailments that reportedly make his retirement imminent, but the question remains: why is it such a struggle?

The common complaint, as Giles reinforced when we chatted in 2005, is spin-resistant pitches, a legacy at least in part of Britain’s traditionally inclement climate. The same resistant pitches, presumably, that have seen Mushtaq Ahmed emerge as the key bowler this summer and the past four. In fairness, of late, global warming has led to drier early-season conditions, hence, perhaps, the encouragement for, and strides taken by, the boy Rashid - in Yorkshire of all places.

But the suspicion remains that the traditional English mindset – cautious, pragmatic, proud, more fearful of embarrassment than failure - is at odds with the art of spin. It says much, surely, that the one significant Test career chart an English spinner does top - Ray Illingworth’s economy rate of 1.91 runs per over is the lowest among those who have bowled 10,000 balls over the past 50 years – is one that celebrates defensiveness.

The exceptions-in-chief - the two Phils, Edmonds and Tufnell, and Johnny Wardle – were all mavericks who fell foul of Lord’s. Hence one’s delight at Schofield’s rebirth. However one yearns for Monty to take a leaf out of his mentor Bishan Bedi’s book by tossing it up a little more and bowling a smidge slower, Schofield, another maverick, is likelier to defeat opponents through wit and surprise. Mark Butcher, his captain at Surrey, is certainly quick to laud his flipper.

If he can marry that natural brio and brimming self-belief to control – and his Twenty20 curmudgeonliness suggests he may well be on the way to doing just that - Schofield may yet emerge as the fully-formed “mystery spinner” Nasser Hussain clamoured for when he was initially selected against Zimbabwe in 2000. Sharing a dressing-room with Ian Salisbury, England’s last Great White Legspin Hope, has clearly been beneficial.

“He told me to get the field right because unless you’re Shane Warne you’re always going to bowl bad balls,” Schofield told me a couple of weeks ago. Ah, the W-word. “People need to realise that you can’t compare anyone to him. Fortunately, I think most do now. Look at Adil Rashid. Yorkshire have treated him very well, he’s bowling very consistently and turns it a long way, but the Indians got after him. You’ve got to expect to struggle.”

Schofield, of course, is as well-versed in the art of struggling as any contemporary cricketer. Happily, he is luckier than Edmonds, Tufnell and Wardle: the England selectors and management these days tend to be more enlightened and compassionate, not to say more indulging of apparent soloists.

Let’s just hope, as he develops that pragmatic streak, that Schofield can hang on to that lil’ ol’ devil inside.