Time is running out to make a case for the summer’s big event, but two players in particular have stepped up
George Dobell in St Kitts09-Mar-2019If Chris Jordan were the Barbados-born cricketer qualifying for England next week, you wonder how much momentum calls for his selection would be gathering.As things stand, it is Jofra Archer who is dominating discussions around World Cup selection. And with his pace and potential, you can understand that.But you wonder if the lure of the new sometimes obscures the value of the familiar. For Jordan also offers a compelling package of skills. And, while he has not played an ODI since September 2016, he has provided a timely reminder of his qualities in these last two T20I matches. It’s not impossible it could yet win him a recall.While some limited-overs bowling figures can be misleading – bowlers might see their figures improved by a flurry of late wickets, with batsmen caught on the boundary, for example – Jordan’s figures here were reward for some high-class seam bowling. At one stage, he took four wickets in eight balls for the cost of two runs as Darren Bravo edged a fine one angled across him – the sort of wicket you might see in Test cricket, really – Jason Holder played around a straight one and Nicolas Pooran and Fabian Allen were punished for attempting to run good length, well-directed balls down to third man.This backed up his impressive performance in St Lucia. There he dismissed Chris Gayle with a well-directed yorker – a delivery that proved beyond his ODI counterparts for much of the preceding series – and followed it with an excellent slower ball (and brilliant return catch) to dismiss Bravo.So, in two games, he has shown the skill to bowl with variation and control, and an ability to bowl at most stages of the innings.This second match may prove especially relevant, though. The England management already know he is a good bowler at the death. They are less confident of his ability to maintain a tight line and length and bowl in earlier phases of the game. He may have gone some way towards convincing them here.Jordan has probably been unfortunate to play as little international cricket as he has. He was, by the coaching staff’s reckoning, the pick of England’s bowlers when he played the last of his eight Tests in Barbados in May 2015. But he was then left out of the team for the first Test against New Zealand a few weeks later on the basis that the selectors wanted to give Mark Wood a Test debut to ensure he had some experience at that level before the Ashes. At the time, it was presumed Jordan would be back later in the summer.But a couple of weeks after those Tests against New Zealand, Jordan sustained a side strain when bowling in an ODI. He had already stayed on the pitch too long for his own good – he went for 97 from nine overs – but was then obliged to bat as England went close to chasing 379 from 46 overs. That brief innings worsened the side strain and he was forced into a long lay-off. He fell out of the reckoning in that layoff and has only played half-a-dozen ODIs since.He has not, perhaps, developed his batting quite as much as it once seemed he would. And he does not have quite the pace of Archer or Wood. But he is a bowler with a good range of skills and as good a fielder as anyone available to England. He could be a very useful member of a 15-man World Cup squad.Sam Billings steers the ball through the on side•Getty ImagesMuch the same might be said about Sam Billings. His innings here – his highest in international cricket – showcased both his ability as a ball-striker and his cricketing intelligence. We don’t have to look too far back to see what happened the last time England’s top-order were knocked over cheaply in international cricket but on this occasion, Billings – in company with Joe Root, who made his first T20I half-century since the World T20 final in Kolkata – showed an ability to adapt their game to reflect both the match situation and a pitch offering the bowlers some assistance.With England reeling at 32 for 4 at one stage, his first 34 runs occupied 31 balls before, having established a base, he accelerated so dramatically that his final 16 balls brought him 53 runs. The 44 England scored from the final two overs of the innings left West Indies needing the largest score ever made in a T20I on this ground and a total perhaps 25 or 30 above par.It may well not be enough to earn Billings a place in that World Cup squad, though. With Alex Hales seemingly guaranteed the spot for the reserve batsman, there are only three sports remaining in the squad. While Ed Smith is clearly keen on Joe Denly, there seems limited point in having a third spinner in the squad – it is hard to see any circumstances in which he would play – so it may well be those final three spots are all taken by seam bowlers. It’s not impossible there could be two Barbados-born bowlers in that squad.”That would be a dream,” Jordan admitted. “But we haven’t talked about it. We don’t put that sort of thing in the atmosphere. We try and stay grounded and not get too far ahead of ourselves. We put our energy into what’s in front of us.”At least Billings is winning an opportunity now. The likes of James Vince, Dawid Malan (who has scored four half-centuries in his five T20Is) and Liam Livingstone are struggling to win an opportunity even in this second-string side.It is reflective, up to a point anyway, of the days when Australian cricket possessed such strength in depth that fine players such as Stuart Law (one Test, 54 ODIs) or Martin Love (five Tests) were limited to relatively brief international careers.There is a sense that this T20I series, coming at the end of a long tour, is a bit of an afterthought. But winning the series so comprehensively is a decent achievement for England. West Indies are world champions in this format, after all, and England have rested half-a-dozen of their first-choice players.To bowl a side out for 45 – the lowest total in T20I history by a Full Member of the ICC – and complete victory by 137 runs – only three times in T20I history has a larger margin of victory (in terms of runs) been achieved – is testament to England’s depth.It must bode well for their chances in both the World Cup and the T20 World Cup. But for the likes of Jordan and Billings, it makes securing a place in the side desperately tough.
