It is the dawn of a new County Championship season and everybody wants to talk about Dan Worrall. Except, it seems, the man himself. “I might just announce my international retirement and we can all go home,” Worrall jests as he deals with the first of many questions in a summer in which he will become eligible for England.
You will, by now, have a degree of familiarity with the story of the Australian swing bowler who has come to form the backbone of a county cricket dynasty. Across the last three years, Worrall has been the standout seamer in the country, marrying new-ball movement to unerring accuracy on and around the top of off stump to prove a vital component in Surrey’s three-peat. His tale – the angled run-up grooved dodging a tree in his childhood back yard, his nickname “Franky” taken from a West Indian legend – would be fascinating enough even if the 33-year-old did not qualify for England.
But he does. Or at least will do. Hence the noise. At some point this year, Worrall will satisfy the eligibility requirements and become available for England selection. And Rob Key, Luke Wright, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes will have a decision to make.
“You can’t not notice Dan Worrall,” Key said last year. While the England selection panel appear to be County Championship sceptics, a summer in which he took his 52 red-ball wickets at 16.15 certainly represents a compelling case for inclusion.
Confirming only that he would accept a call-up were one to come, Worrall played the straightest of bats to questions as probing and repetitive as one of his new-ball bursts. “Honestly, you guys talk about it much more than we do,” the Melbourne-born seamer says. “To be honest, I haven’t thought ...
