John Turner hoping to justify hype in Australia ODIs as he seeks to earn a maiden England cap in this series.
John Turner may get his chance to play for his country. Due to a demanding schedule that includes five matches in 11 days, beginning on Thursday at Trent Bridge,.
Turner, 23, has been on the outside looking in for more than a year, having only completed his degree in economics and finance this past summer at Exeter University. He was included in the team for the T20I series against New Zealand last summer, but an injury kept him out of the game. In December, he was left out of the touring group in the Caribbean.
Turner appears destined to earn his first cap in the Australia ODIs after running the drinks during last week’s drawn T20I series. This is especially true given that Jofra Archer’s workload is being controlled and that three of England’s seven fast-bowling options—Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, and Olly Stone—are travelling to Pakistan for the Test series in October, which begins a few days after the final ODI on September 29. The late addition of Saqib Mahmood to the team on Tuesday highlighted the fact that the team will be changing frequently throughout the series.
“Just being in the squad is a cool experience for myself,” Turner said. “But you obviously want to and hope to debut at some point, and hopefully that comes at some stage in this series… being in and around the squads and the players, you naturally improve and you naturally learn.
“I definitely would say I’m in a much better place now than I was this time last year, but I’ve still got quite a long way to go: I’m not anywhere near the finished product… The way you approach the game with different ideas for different batsmen and different scenarios, that’s what I end up taking from these types of environments.”
Turner, who was only in the UK for four years, has a pronounced South African accent. Although he has a bowling average below 20 in all three forms, his pace attracted England’s attention during his first T20 campaign for Hampshire last summer. He has since grabbed plenty of wickets in his brief professional career.
Turner calls himself “naturally competitive” and crossed the 90 mph/145 kph threshold this season while playing for the Trent Rockets. After two straight beamers against London Spirit, he was taken off the attack with statistics of 0-0-5-0 to begin his Hundred season in an unusual way. However, he bounced back swiftly, claiming five wickets in his next two games.
Turner believes that there will be “healthy competition” among England’s fast bowlers in their ODI series. “I’ve never played in the same team as Jof, and I probably won’t be as quick as him. But if I’m bowling with him, if I see his speed on the board, I’ll be like, ‘let me see if I can match him.’ I’m naturally competitive and I’ll naturally want to try and be the quickest.
“It’s probably healthy competition if we have that as well… Pace is my point of difference, but around that, I want to have the skillset also to be able to compete. It’s always exciting to have a full stock of fast bowlers: the crowd enjoy watching sixes and boundaries, but I think it’s quite enjoyable watching guys bowling 85-plus and pure speed.”