Surrey spinner would be just the third Sikh to play for England
Monday 8 June 2020 06:27, UK
It has been seven years since a Sikh spinner last played for England but another is now pushing hard for an opportunity.
Amar Virdi's hopes of following in the footsteps of Monty Panesar were significantly boosted a few weeks ago when he was one of 55 players - and eight spinners - named in a large back-to-training group as England prepare for what should be a busy behind-closed-doors summer.
Plenty of those asked to dust off their training gear could press for inclusion in any format but Virdi - like Panesar before him - is principally a red-ball bowler, a domain in which he has, bar one hiccup, starred for Surrey since bagging a three-wicket haul on debut aged 18, against Essex in 2017.
The off-spinner, now 21, claimed 39 scalps in the 2018 Specsavers County Championship - only Essex's Simon Harmer managed more among spinners in the top flight - to help Surrey scoop their first four-day crown since 2002.
Virdi then took a career-best 14-139 in his belated first appearance of the 2019 campaign to raze Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge and all-but extinguish any fears the Kia Oval side had of following a title-winning season with a relegation one.
A promotion to England's training party shows that Virdi - born across London in Middlesex but brought through the successful Surrey academy - is held in high regard, but the selectors will want to ensure the issues that delayed his comeback from a lower-back injury in the 2018/19 winter are a thing of the past before they expose him to international cricket.
The reason Virdi had to wait until July for his first game of 2019 was because his fitness levels dipped below what Surrey and the county's director of cricket, Alec Stewart, deemed acceptable.
Last season was, well, different. I was pretty sad and upset at missing games after the year we had before but I think good comes from bad.
"Everyone knows he's a special talent, but we have told him on a number of occasions that he needs to be in good physical shape to be considered for first-team selection," Stewart said at the time.
"Thankfully, Amar's starting to understand that to be a professional cricketer, and a potential England cricketer, you have to be strong and fit. If not, your levels of performance drop and the risk of injury increases.
"We want him to play for England, but first he's got to earn a position in our match squads, which he has yet to do after nine Championship games. He's responded well to what is tough love, if you like."
Virdi's 8-61 and 6-78 against Nottinghamshire days later suggested the "tough love" had worked and he went on to end the campaign with 23 wickets in five games at an average of 19.65.
He then appeared at Lions level in Australia this winter, taking a couple of wickets in his sole appearance, against a New South Wales XI.
But Virdi - who has volunteered for charity Nishkam SWAT during lockdown, distributing food to London's homeless and vulnerable citizens - will now be eyeing senior honours and if he achieves that, he will become just the third Sikh, after Panesar and Ravi Bopara, to play for England.
The similarities with Panesar don't just stop at the beard and Patka head covering, though, with Virdi also as exuberant when taking wickets or even appealing for them.
"A lot of people come to watch you play and it is important that they go away feeling they have been entertained," Virdi said after his successful 2018 campaign.
"I don't think some batsmen like it too much but people have said to me 'we love your celebrations, they're amazing' and such, so I just do what feels right at the time."
Virdi has had 69 first-class wickets to cheer in his career thus far, many of them under the captaincy of Surrey skipper and potential future England team-mate Rory Burns.
"He's a very good young spinner - he spins the ball, he is quite attacking and will make things happen for you," Burns said of Virdi on Sky Sports' The Cricket Show.
"He's had to learn in his short career how to control games in the first innings when he can't just attack as much but, as a captain, I have felt very fortunate to have him at my disposal.
"He is a pretty relaxed character in how he does things. There is a little desire there - he wants to keep improving, keep developing and he is certainly moving in the right direction."
Virdi's ascent into England's Test side could take time, though, with the battle for spin places only increased by Moeen Ali making himself available again following a self-imposed break from the longest form after being dropped during the Ashes and losing his red-ball central contract.
Dom Bess is the man in possession, having taken a maiden Test five-for in South Africa over the winter after benefiting from Moeen's absence and Jack Leach's illness.
Plus, Leach - the most consistent English spinner in county cricket over recent seasons - will hope to get the lengthy run games that gastroenteritis, sepsis and a broken thumb have so far denied him since he made his debut in New Zealand in 2018.
Should the opportunity present itself, however, Virdi is determined not to let it slip through his grasp.
"I know I have to be in the best possible shape. I don't want to let my team-mates down by not being able to make a catch or bowl 50 overs in a match," he told The Guardian earlier this year.
"I want to play Test cricket and be in the best shape come the fifth day to win the game for my team. I've been training hard and watching what I eat.
"It's been a case of getting into the mindset of a professional athlete. I want to make sure that it [fitness issues] is not spoken about again.
"The journey can take time or be fast. I just want to be ready when it comes and show the world what I can do."
It looks like Moeen and co have some real competition.
