Defending County Championship champions Surrey won’t change approach

BY MARCUS HOOK

Gareth Batty has signalled there will be no change of philosophy when it comes to how Surrey will go about defending their championship crown this summer.

The former England spinner, who oversaw a County Championship win in his first season as the Oval outfit’s head coach, says that laying down a marker with the bat will continue to be Surrey’s primary focus, believing ‘Bazball’ is best left to England.

Eleven players made more than 350 championship runs for the South Londoners last term including Jordan Clark and Jamie Overton, who, along with Dan Worrall, were Surrey’s leading wicket-takers.

The Oval outfit also racked up 48 first innings batting bonus points – more than any other side in the country – and 11 more than Hampshire, who were next best with 37 in Division One.

“We had the highest number of batting points and that was very tactical,” said Batty.

“We’re fortunate that we work very hard on multi-skills – not just sticking to the traditional ‘you’re a bowler and you’re a batter’.

“We want everybody to perform. Having multi-skilled players takes the pressure off each individual, so they can get to the heights we want them to get to.

“In terms of ‘Bazball’ there’s a bit of me that thinks I’m not sure we could be much more positive. I always look for improvement and we are, 100 per cent. But when you look at the players we have, who are playing for England, there’s an amount already going on for us.

“It will be interesting to see how some of the other counties go about it, but we’re going to do our thing and I’m very comfortable in the way we’re bowling and batting at the minute to deal with whatever is thrown our way.

“We didn’t have a pre-season because of not having enough bodies to facilitate games, but I’m incredibly comfortable with where the boys are at and we’re good to go.

“We’re in a fortunate position, in some ways, in that at least half of the squad have been away all winter, so they’ve been getting good cricket.

“The lads who have been at home have been in the Ken Barrington Centre and then, for the last six weeks, outside in the marquee, which we’ve been lucky enough to have again.”

Batty is not only excited by what Sean Abbott, Surrey’s second overseas player, will bring to the party, but also sees his signing affording Jamie Overton the time he needs to regain full fitness after suffering a stress fracture of the lumbar spine.

“That was part of our reasoning for going down that route,” said Batty. “Sean’s quality – we’ve just seen that in India – and he’s a great addition to our group.

“It also buys Jamie a bit more time, in terms of not being forced to rush back.

“When he comes back, we want him to be firing and to be getting to the places he got to last year.

“So, it gives Jamie some time, but we don’t have a definitive because the process is a series of staggered scans to see how the repair is going.

“The next one will be at the end of the month and we’re hoping that Jamie will be able to play by mid-summer.”

An ECB review conducted by Andrew Strauss, recommending fewer games in the County Championship, will remain the same, at least for the time being.

Batty is happy at that outcome for the domestic schedule, seeing it as being crucial in terms of developing future England stars.

“All I hear is we play too much cricket – but I disagree” said the Surrey boss.

“We play an appropriate amount to upskill players playing county cricket to play for England.

“And once they play for England we shouldn’t see much of them, because county cricket is geared towards the pinnacle – playing for England.

“There was a huge amount right with the Strauss review. How we’re going to make it function is possibly the issue.

“With the England players travelling the world, they’re the best of the best and if they’re not playing county cricket, that’s cool. All we want is for them to be fit and ready to play for England.

“But to upskill our young players I use Harry Brook [who scored 967 championship runs at an average of 107.44 for Yorkshire last summer] as an example. Having those eight games last season to get all the runs he got was the finishing bit.

“He’s still got a way to go, but county cricket affords that because you play a lot. The volume of cricket just under England is a positive. We need to be smart with our fast bowlers, obviously, but for batters and spinners the volume is great.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD