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Examine Tom Hartley’s List A career for a solid
indication of the place 50-over cricket has in the contemporary scene.
His five appearances in the format have all occurred
in 2023, and none of them have been for Lancashire, his home county. The first
three made their international debut at Trent Bridge at the end of the summer
as a band of alternates against Ireland, following their January England Lions
tour of Sri Lanka.
Hartley’s debut season in 50-over cricket will come to
an end in the West Indies, where he will be a member of the England ODI team
hoping to bounce back after a catastrophic 2019 championship defence in India.
After being considered an afterthought, the tour is now being presented as a
long-overdue update, with only six members of the 2023 World Cup team
travelling across the Atlantic. Hartley has, almost by accident, ended up in
the right place at the right moment.
Despite having little experience, the 6′ 4in left-arm
spinner has been getting ready for shock England duty. With Moeen Ali’s
post-Ashes retirement limiting their options for spin, the Test team will be
travelling to India at the beginning of the year. Hartley has only taken five
wickets in 20 first-class matches, but for that five-match series, he is
clearly regarded as a bolter.
This season, he has been the most effective spinner at
Emirates Old Trafford, unseating legspinner Matt Parkinson both from the team
and the club. He has played in ten County Championship games. The ECB
performance director, Mo Bobat, was among those who noticed his emerging
“attributes” despite the fact that he only managed 19 dismissals at
an average of 44.84. Bobat had studied him closely the previous winter in Sri
Lanka.
Later this week, Hartley will join a group of 20 Lions
players for a three-week training camp in the UAE, which will serve as both a
fact-finding mission for India in the new year and a red-ball spin refinement
exercise. This will mark the continuation of their connection. Specifically
with Test head coach Brendon McCullum coming out to survey the options at his
disposal.