James Vince finally joins peers at the party
It has taken time for Hampshire’s new captain to make his mark at international level but Richard Edwards says his stylish batting could be what England need in Test arena as well as in one-day game
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Your support makes all the difference.It has taken him slightly longer than some of his contemporaries but now James Vince is intent on staking an international claim alongside his former team-mates from a gilded generation.
Vince was named man of the series as England romped to a 3-0 Twenty20 series over Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates this week.
That represented something of a breakthrough for a batsman who played in the same England Under-19 side as the likes of Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, but has taken longer than many hoped to begin fulfilling his immense promise.
Since making his County Championship debut for Hampshire as an 18-year-old back in June 2009 – scoring 75 against Nottinghamshire in just his second innings – Vince has stood out as one of English cricket’s most stylish batsmen.
Until this brief T20 series, however, he was not deemed an essential accessory to England’s short-format set-up. His performances in Dubai and Sharjah have changed all that and, after scoring 125 runs in three matches, he has thrust himself into England’s World Twenty20 plans for the tournament, which begins in India in March.
He might also have shown enough for the England coach, Trevor Bayliss, to consider him as a replacement for the equally easy-on-the-eye Ian Bell in England’s Test middle order.
“It was an amazing week, awesome,” the 24-year-old Vince told The Independent. “I was involved in the T20 squads in the summer but there [were] only one-off games against New Zealand and Australia and I didn’t get a go in those.
“It was great to get the opportunity out here and to beat that side 3-0 was a great effort from everyone. This is the first time I’ve been around the group for any real period of time and I loved every minute of it.
“Everyone is really enjoying their cricket and is given the freedom to play how they’ve been able to play for their counties. My opportunity has come in Twenty20 so far but, hopefully, in the next 18 months I can push on and try to make my way into the other sides as well.”
If that happens he can look forward to the prospect of renewing acquaintance with some of the England players who have captured the imagination so far in 2015.
Root has beaten the England record for the most runs in a calendar year, Buttler nicked a title he already owned by hitting the fastest one-day hundred by an English batsman, while Stokes has emerged as one of the most outstanding all-rounders of his generation.
Throw in Sam Billings, who scored his first T20 half-century against Pakistan in Dubai, and David Willey and it is clear that Vince’s Under-19 generation was the sort that does not come around too often.
Their World Cup story, however, sounds rather familiar.
“A lot of these guys were in that Under-19 squad,” he says. “In that 2010 World Cup, we lost in a rain-affected game against the West Indies [in Rangiora on New Zealand’s South Island] when we really should have won. Quite a few of those guys have gone on to the play for England and the England Lions, quite a few are doing well in county cricket and one or two don’t play any more. It was an incredibly strong group.”
That Under-19 side was captained by Azeem Rafiq, who was released by Yorkshire last season, but now it is Vince who has stepped up to assume the leadership of his county, Hampshire, and, for the next two weeks in the UAE, the England Lions.
Vince assumed the role on the South Coast towards the end of last season, leaving former captain Jimmy Adams to concentrate on his batting. As it was, things could not have worked out better. Vince’s stuttering form improved towards the end of a testing season in the top tier of English cricket and Hampshire survived what looked like certain relegation on a nerve-shredding final day.
Hampshire went into the season’s finale needing to secure victory over Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge to stay in the First Division. Vince’s men also had to hope that Sussex would lose against the champions Yorkshire at Headingley. Ultimately, both results went in their favour.
“At the start of the year I was struggling for form and when the games are coming thick and fast it can be quite tough to get out of that slump,” he says. “Once the Twenty20 started I got a bit of confidence from that, and that had a knock-on effect on my four-day runs too.
“Finishing off captaining the four-day team was enjoyable and the fact we won some games made it a lot easier. We hadn’t given up [on staying up] and after we had won just after lunch on day four we came in and saw that Sussex were four or five down.
“We didn’t have too many beers with lunch but then guys started to believe we were going to do it. It was a long bus journey home from Trent Bridge, stopping at a few pubs on the way back. It was a pretty entertaining trip.”
A successful few weeks with the Lions would crown a memorable year for Vince – and give him something else to toast at Christmas.
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