“I’ve seen a few things on Twitter asking if I actually exist,” jokes John Turner. Five England squads and 15 months after his first call-up, he finally earned his debut in Antigua this week.
A first appearance came on Thursday and a first wicket arrived on Saturday, when Brandon King’s flashing drive was brilliantly caught by Jordan Cox at backward point.
“It’s nice to have been involved in the last few months, but now to get that opportunity to actually play is really exciting,” explains Turner. “To get your first wicket is really cool and is probably a moment I’ll never forget.”
One of the founding members of England’s ‘pace project’, Turner was plucked from obscurity last year when he went from professional debut for Hampshire to an England call-up in 70 days. The ECB have since doubled-down on their punt by handing Turner another 12-month development contract.
“I think the whole ‘pace project’, as they call it, is really exciting,” Turner said. “There’s quite a lot of us that’s in and around. I think just being in and around the squads is really exciting to try and put my name in the hat for a spot on the Test team, or the T20 team. I think I’m still very raw, I’m very young and still have a lot to learn.”
Turner’s two outings so far have been a qualified success. On debut, he beat King and Evin Lewis regularly without reward, while in his second appearance he dismissed both within his first seven balls. In both instances, you looked at the scoreboard and were surprised to see he’d conceded his runs at 5.2 an over and then 7 an over. But a couple of pulled sixes on each occasion will do that.
Handed his cap by Jofra Archer, the Bajan-born quick announced to the world that Turner was the best player of PIG, the football-based headers and volleys warm-up game England play, in the squad. This was a lie. Turner is bottom of the pile.
Which, if anything, is a relief. A better hockey player than cricketer growing up, Turner completed his degree in economics and finance at Exeter University over the summer which he had been studying for full-time. A year ago, if you walked through the team hotel of this same tour, chances are you’d have seen Turner with his head buried in his books and a laptop with a coffee on the go.
“I’m obviously not planning on using it right now,” Turner commented. “But I think I’ll probably end up doing a masters at some stage in the next few years, just to add to my CV and keep ticking over.”
During this year’s Hundred, Turner finished a match for Trent Rockets in Birmingham on a Monday night, drove back to Exeter where he arrived at 2:30am, sat his exam at 9:30am, and then drove back to Nottingham the next day for the Rockets next match. He passed.
One of the first picks of this England generation to be selected on attributes as opposed to a proven body of work, Turner appreciates the benefits and also the slightly awkward nature of leapfrogging those who have been putting in the hard yards for years.
“It’s obviously really exciting that someone sees something in you,” he says. “Probably before you see it yourself.
“Cricket is a stats game, but you need those attributes to prove yourself or be successful at the top level. And whether I’ve got that, or whether some other guys, younger guys, have got that, no one really knows until you’re put in this environment and either succeed or you fail.
“You see guys doing really well in county cricket, and not necessarily getting opportunities in the national setup. And you feel for them, it’s tough grinding away and almost you’re not tall enough or not big enough, and you’re being labelled as that’s why you’re not going to succeed. But on the flip side, I’m fortunate enough to be benefiting from this and, hopefully, just make the most of it and take whatever opportunity I’m given.”
Turner’s pace, he admits, has been down this tour and is something he’s looking to address.
“It’s one of my biggest attributes but I feel like I’ve been down on that in the last few games. I reckon I’ve been low 80s when I prefer to be high 80s. I know in The Hundred I was high 80s with one or two in the 90s.
“So I know I can get there. It’s just, what am I not doing and I need to figure that out and put that into practice and hopefully get up there.
“But then again, it’s something to improve on and then just trying to hit the deck hard and make life uncomfortable for the batter. Use whatever the surface has to offer – so whether that’s going to nip around, or stay low, pop up – just trying to take advantage of that. [I want to] be really attacking and try and be that point of difference.”
Cameron Ponsonby is a freelance cricket writer in London. @cameronponsonby
