Josh Hull, the most outrageous Babzall pick yet?

The Brendon McCullum, Ben Stokes and Rob Key era — let’s just call it Bazball for convenience — has been synonymous with adventurous and expansive selections and tactical calls. 

Like Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley being picked for India because of their release points, though they were averaging 67.0 and 36.6 respectively in first-class cricket and were nowhere close to statistically being the best spinners in the country. Like Dan Lawrence being asked to open in Zak Crawley’s absence. Like Liam Livingstone and Will Jacks being picked as spin-bowling all-rounders in Pakistan. 

But Josh Hull might just be the most outrageous Bazball selection, yet. 

Who is Josh Hull?

A 6ft 7' monster who plays for Leicestershire, Hull is a 20-year-old who only has 10 first-class appearances under his belt. Numbers is not the major concern for the selectors who have gone for the teenager just because he is a left-arm seamer that bowls really fast. Tall & fast with a high release point is exciting enough for Bazball. 

Hull has been in England’s radar for a while. In an interview with Telegraph Cricket in March, Key admitted that he and the others had been watching Hull's development with great interest.

“Look at the best bowlers in the world: Cummins, Bumrah, Starc, Hazlewood, Siraj and Rabada. They are past the vertical bowling in and moving it away. They are all 85mph plus with high skill. That’s what we need,” Key said in the same interview, making it clear that England were seeking certain attributes.

That the 20-year-old has been fast-tracked into the Test set-up makes one thing clear that England see all the aforementioned attributes in Hull. The Leicestershire pacer was even part of the England Lions XI against the Sri Lankan side in the warm-up game last week, which the Lions won by seven wickets.

Why is Hull’s selection outrageous?

There is no doubt that Hull possesses all the ingredients to be successful at the highest level, but it’s a bit difficult to not raise eyebrows over his selection. The 20-year-old has taken 16 wickets in 14 innings of 10 first-class games at an average of 62.75 and economy of 4.91.

He has bowled 68 overs (4 innings) for Leicestershire in Division 2 this season, and has taken just 2 wickets at an average of 182.50 and economy of 5.36, taking a wicket every 204 balls.

He was relatively better in the 2023 season but still bad — 9 wickets in 8 innings at an average of 62.77 and economy of 4.87.

How Hull impressed the selectors in the warm-up match?

Overall numbers aside, Hull fared really well in the warm-up game against Sri Lanka for the Lions, returning with match figures of 5/74. 

In the first innings, the tall pacer ran through Sri Lanka’s middle-order, sending all of Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal back to the hut in a space of four overs. 

You can check out all three dismissals here —  Mathews at 1:43:38, de Silva at 1:56:06 and Chandimal at 2:03:19. While he used height to his advantage in the dismissals of Mathews and de Silva, it was his versatility that got Chandimal, cleaning up the right-hander with a pearler of an inswinger.

He rounded off the warmup game with two more strikes in the second innings, cleaning up the tail.

This impressive showing against the tourists’ first XI might have played a big hand in the English management taking a punt on the 20-year-old.

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