Bancroft, Harris and Handscomb: How the Australian Ashes hopefuls are faring in England

The opening round of the English County Championship season has concluded. Three Ashes hopefuls in Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Peter Handscomb looking to book their spots in the Australian squad by proving their suitability to English conditions.

Cam Bancroft (Somerset)

The leading run scorer in this season of the Shield, Bancroft came in at number 3 for a Somerset outfit that batted first on a ground that was mostly submerged under water a couple of days before which saw play abandoned without a single delivery on day 1 and the first session of day 2.

The Western Australian was solid without being exceptional in the first innings. His usual scrappy and combatant self Bancroft fought hard to score 44 off of 104 deliveries. However, he would’ve been bitter with himself about the way he got out after getting a start.

The right-hander knicked off when trying to push a short wide delivery where his feet went nowhere. In the second innings, Bancroft was trapped lbw to an in-swinger for a duck with his head falling to the off-side instead of being right over the ball.

What may potentially work against Bancroft for Ashes selection is his disappointing track record in the County Championship in the past.

In 40 innings, Bancroft has scored 1104 runs at an average of 31.54 with only one century and five 50s. Bancroft will have 3 more County games for Somerset to put this narrative to rest in his bid to make his re-entry to the Test level.

Cameron Bancroft. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

Marcus Harris (Gloucestershire)

Marcus Harris celebrated earning a national contract for the year with a 50 and a big century in Gloucestershire’s draw with Glamorgan.

The left-hander top-scored in Gloucestershire’s first innings where they were bundled out for 165. Harris showed strong application to score a defiant 59 from 129 balls on a pitch that was doing a lot on day 1 where Gloucestershire’s next highest run-getter James Bracey scored 33 and the opposition began their innings 3-35 from 14 overs.

It became easier to bat on as the match progressed and Harris took on a far more aggressive approach. He preyed on even the slightest of mistakes by the bowlers to score 148 from 192 deliveries.

Harris has placed an emphasis on playing in England in the Australian off-season after his infamous 2019 Ashes campaign where he averaged 9.66 in 6 innings.

In the lead-up to the 2019 Ashes, Harris had never played in England’s First-Class competition and chose not to partake in that year’s County cricket season.

A decision that aged poorly soon after. Since then Harris has proved his chops in England for Leicestershire and Gloucestershire. In 32 innings, Harris has scored 1588 runs at 51.22 with 7 centuries and 4 50s.

Peter Handscomb (Leicestershire)

Peter Handscomb was an integral part of Leicestershire’s upset victory over heavy favourites Yorkshire in a run-fest at Headingley.

Last year’s winless team were touted by most to come last in Division 2 while Yorkshire were predicted to be in the mix for promotion to Division 1.

Handscomb batted at 5 and played as Leicestershire’s wicket-keeper, a ploy that could help the Victorian’s Ashes endeavour by being able to fill both the spots of reserve batter and reserve wicket-keeper as he did for the tour of India.

The wicket-keeper batsman took a decent diving catch down the leg-side off the bowling of left-arm pacer Finan, while also effecting a stumping from a good leg-break by 18-year-old England Test-capped Rehan Ahmed. Forced to reply to Yorkshire’s mammoth total of 517, Handscomb top-scored for the foxes with 112 as Leicestershire went on to post 415.

The Yorkshire pacers consistently deployed plans to dismiss the right-hander through full in-swingers with Handscomb looking to combat this by batting on an off-stump guard.

There were some close lbw shouts, but Handscomb was seen to have been rapped on the leg outside the line of off-stump or too high on such occasions.

Yorkshire declared on 286/8 with Handscomb taking two catches and not allowing a bye in the third innings. Chasing 389 on the final day, Handscomb helped steer Leicestershire to a 3-wicket victory with an unbeaten 68 from 99 balls.

Handscomb will need to keep putting in big numbers to press his case for the Ashes squad due to a less-than-stellar output in County cricket in the past, as well as a reputation for being weak against the swinging ball. In 51 County Championship innings, Handscomb has scored 1555 runs at 33.08 while only being able to notch 2 100s and 10 half-centuries.