Dan Lawrence likely to miss out on third Test — but he will come again

[ASFN Admin]

Late on the third evening in Chepauk, with England’s fate of emphatic defeat long ago sealed, Dan Lawrence provided a wonderful moment of resistance. Faced with Ravichandran Ashwin in Chennai, the master in his lair, Lawrence advanced down the track and launched a straight six: a stroke conceived, and executed, with brilliant clarity. It was just a fleeting, futile act of defiance, but it spoke of a rich talent, emphasising the impression Lawrence had made in his sparkling 73 and 21 not out on Test debut in Sri Lanka. It is under a month since Lawrence oversaw England’s victory in their first winter Test. The brutality of Test cricket is such that these four weeks must already feel like an age: enough time for the quirks of Lawrence’s technique to go from lauded to lambasted, and for the numbing reality of a sequence of 58 runs in six innings. Lawrence secured his Test selection as a two-time County Championship winner - with one Bob Willis Trophy thrown in for good measure - at the age of 23, with a reputation as an individualistic talent and particularly adroit player of spin. This perception was merited: for Essex in first-class cricket, his average of 34.6 against pace swells to 60.3 against spin. Over a torrid last month in Asia, Lawrence has become the latest player to learn that pedigree against spin in the County Championship gives no guarantee of success against spin bowling at Test level. Different approaches - from the first innings passivity here, when he laboured for 52 balls over nine runs, to his more proactive second innings method - have been stymied by the excellence of first Lasith Embuldeniya and then Ashwin. In between, during the first Test in Chennai, Lawrence was twice dismissed cheaply by reverse swing bowling of a quality seldom glimpsed in the county game.

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