Dan Lawrence: Surrey man ‘would have been silly’ not to open for England

Granted, Lawrence is in a vastly superior position to open for England than yours truly headlining the Pyramid Stage. He opened in his younger days and batting is batting, right?

Yes and no. Opening is a specialist position, suited to some and not others. The challenge of fresh pace bowlers armed with a new ball. The decisions of whether to play or leave, attack or defend, how best to set the tone for those who follow.

For Lawrence, a natural aggressor, an internal battle with what an opener should bat like was one he ultimately did not win.

“I struggled with the balance of wanting to play a certain style, which is really aggressive, and the other part in my head saying ‘you’re an opener; you need to see off the new ball’,” says Lawrence.

It’s hard not to feel for him. An entire 14-Test career has been stop-start. Just as Lawrence looked most at home, batting at number four on the 2022 West Indies tour that ended Joe Root’s reign as captain, he got injured to be ruled out of the beginning of Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum regime.

Those early Bazballing days may have been a perfect fit for Lawrence, but instead the former Essex player had to wait more than two years between caps, carrying drinks in all parts of the globe.

Against Sri Lanka, scores of 30 and 34 in the first Test at Old Trafford were encouraging, only to be followed by three in single figures.

Even if McCullum and Stokes were unwavering in their backing of Lawrence, it was doing little to alleviate the oppression of his own expectations.