Jonathan Trott's mission to maintain his high Test match standards
When you launch your Test career with a century you set a pretty lofty standard.
When you mark your debut with not just any old century but a match-turning, Ashes-clinching ton, you’ve set the bar unfeasibly high.
That is what Warwickshire batsman Jonathan Trott did at The Oval last August when England, humiliated by Australia in the fourth Test at Headingley, turned to him to shore up a top-order splintered by Ravi Bopara’s collapse in form.
Trott was pitched into the team for the Ashes decider.
His selection was, depending upon your point of view (and everybody had one) a logical consequence of his heavy scoring for the Bears or a desperate move by a selection panel gambling recklessly on a rookie in a momentous game.
We all know what came next. Trott looked utterly composed on his way to a first-innings 41 which ended with a freak run-out.
In the second dig he scored 119 to set up England’s victory.
The 28-year-old looked at home from ball one. In the most highly-charged atmosphere, he barely played a false shot.
Test cricket? Piece of cake.
Trott was lauded to the skies. Everybody wanted a piece of him. England not only reclaimed the Ashes but had discovered a cast-iron top-order performer to boot. Pats on backs all round.
At such times it’s churlish to find a negative, even a tongue-in-cheek one. But there is one palpable drawback with starting in such glorious fashion: How do you follow that?
Consider Joseph Heller who produced the magnificent Catch 22 for his debut novel and spent the rest of his career having all his subsequent work compared unfavourably to it. Trott’s first opportunity to “follow that” arrived in South Africa this winter.
In a four-Test series he started well, with 28 and 69 at Centurion, then petered away with 18, 20 and 42 before managing just five and eight in England’s drubbing in the final Test at Johannesburg.
Immediately, some wise men in the media expressed doubts.
But Trott has no doubts.
He averages 38.88 after five Tests and 49.33 after four ODIs. And he has his expectations in perspective even if one or two scribes got carried away.
“I have spoken to several former players,” Trott said, “and they said ‘you started too well because you set the standard and people will expect the same every time, even on a green wicket.’
