Bess restates credentials as England’s incumbent spinner

Dom Bess is England’s incumbent slow bowler after playing in their last Test in South Africa and restated his credentials with a solid display on the second day of the three-day warm-up match in Southampton ahead of next week’s first Test against West Indies.

The Somerset off-spinner picked up two wickets with some smart bowling – he had Keaton Jennings caught at slip and later had Craig Overton edging to the ‘keeper – and got through 20 overs worth of work on his first appearance since playing in Sri Lanka in March during England’s aborted tour.

Bess looked more threatening on the second day at the Ageas Bowl than either Moeen Ali or Jack Leach had the day before when both went wicketless. The tricks Bess showed in South Africa, where he took a maiden five-wicket haul in the third Test in Port Elizabeth, were evident as he used the crease and an occasional round arm action to vary his angles.

Before the warm-up game started, head coach Chris Silverwood was asked about the competition in the spin department and said that it would be “difficult to go too far away, straight away, from where we finished off.” That suggests that Bess is the man that England will stick with, at least in the first Test, although he is not taking anything for granted.

“In my head, I am wanting to start,” Bess said. “All five spinners are looking to push. That was a real big challenge for me, just making sure that when I do come into this sort of arena, practice games, making sure I really focus on what I can do. I think I have done that really well. I just want to put myself in the best position possible for when the decision does come.

“With what’s gone on, it would be a good achievement [to keep my place] but it also brings a lot of responsibility to make sure I am still bowling the best I can. A big thing I want to do is push that spot and make it my own. That’s normal. We have got amazing competition and there is no spitefulness or anything like that. We help each other, we are looking to improve each other.”

Bess admitted that he was nervous when he first started bowling after the Covid-19 enforced break and tried to pick up where he left off at the end of this winter by bowling as much as he could during his individual training sessions in Taunton. At one stage, he needed to be told by Somerset’s coach, Jason Kerr, to ease off.

“I am trying to bowl as much as I can to get that feel back, that rhythm,” Bess said. “You certainly have got to have that feel off the finger. I talk about my rhythm. My bound into my run-up is really important. For having such a long time off, I was a little bit nervous coming back into it. I really wanted to make sure I nailed those fundamentals. I am really happy with it coming out at the moment.”

There was also an interesting middle session duel with Ben Stokes, who will captain England in next week’s first Test in the absence of Joe Root who will be at the birth of his second child. Stokes has already said that he will want a say in the final eleven that he takes onto the field against West Indies and Bess did enough to impress, even if Stokes managed to hit him for a classy six.

“It was a really good challenge today bowling against Stokesy,” Bess added. “I thought I genuinely did him on one of them and he just somehow, on the up, hit it over extra cover for six. This is why he’s one of the best in the world. Nowhere near it and still middles it for six. It’s a really good challenge for me and I like to think I bounced back strong.”