Dan Worrall closes his ears to England talk as Ashes year looms

“I might just announce my international retirement … then you can all go home!”

We’re not even into April, and the line of questioning at Surrey’s pre-season media day is getting a touch samey, to say the least. But Dan Worrall is taking it all in his stride, much as he has done with every step of his remarkable second coming as a professional cricketer – a renaissance that could, with a fair crosswind and a bit of grass on the wicket, result in an England Test debut at the age of 33.

That was certainly the impression that Rob Key, England’s director of cricket, gave in September last year, when he name-checked a bowler who had just claimed 52 wickets at 16.15 to help propel Surrey to a hat-trick of County Championship titles. “You can’t not notice Dan Worrall,” Key said. “He’s got brilliant attributes to be an international bowler.”

Worrall, himself, however, could scarcely be less moved by the speculation. “There’s some things that take space in my head, but this is not one of them,” he said. “I’m just not interested about what anyone else is saying or thinking. I’m just trying to do my best for the team that I’m representing. And to be honest, with two kids under three, that keeps me busy most of the time anyway. So the other stuff doesn’t matter.”

Almost nine years have now elapsed since Worrall’s first foray as an international cricketer: he played three ODIs for Australia, against Ireland and South Africa in September and October 2016. Those yielded one wicket and a sense of a box ticked in his career, as he turned his thoughts to a relocation to England and a chance to build a new life, with or without the sport at its centre.

“I always thought I’d be getting the tube to work in London, but I never thought I’d be coming to a cricket ground,” Worrall said. A UK passport, courtesy of his Nottingham-born father, had encouraged him to take the plunge and uproot his young family but, after an initial haul of 43 wickets at 22.53 for Gloucestershire had confirmed the effectiveness of his fast-medium methods in English conditions, his switch to The Oval has since sent his career into overdrive.

“We just thought it was a great challenge to take on, to have a bit of life experience, and challenge ourselves a little bit on the other side of the world with no family around. But, luckily, I’ve played at an amazing club, and we’ve won three championships, and the Hundred’s just come about. And being able to access leagues around the world is another benefit of moving over.”

The bread-and-butter of Worrall’s new career, however, has been his red-ball form. In the space of those three triumphant seasons, he hoovered up 139 first-class wickets at 21.17, and with England having moved on last summer from James Anderson, a potential vacancy has opened up for, as he put it, “sweat-band seamer” in the Test attack – for the home series against India at the very least, if not for the tour of Australia that follows.

“As a bowler, coming from Australia to England, there’s a lot more variables to play with,” he said. “You’ve got to swing it. Sometimes it bounces, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it’s raining … sunny, there’s grass on the pitch. There’s the Kookaburra [ball] now, so there’s a lot more variables that can make your worst day a lot worse than in Australia, I suppose.

“As a professional, the feather in my cap would be getting to the point where I don’t really surprise anyone with how I perform … to get to the point where your worst day is not that much worse than your best day.”

Can those attributes succeed on an Ashes tour, however? Despite the recent success of Scott Boland in Australia’s home summers, Worrall’s own assessment is candid.

“You want my honest answer? Probably not!” he said. “There is a role – we saw Jimmy for 20 years go on numerous Ashes tours – but as a swing bowler, you’re not going to perform that role in every Test with the Kookaburra ball. There have been opportunities in the last couple of years in Test matches in Australia, [when it’s been] a bit more seamer friendly, but whether that happens again in an Ashes series, that’s yet to be seen. Maybe there’s a job to do as a sweat-band swinger, but we’ll wait and see.”

In his former life, Worrall claimed 184 wickets at 29.03 for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield, so he clearly has the pedigree to do that job Down Under. But, whether or not he’s doing himself out of a job for the coming winter, he also has no doubts about which attributes England should be doubling down on as they seek to win a series in Australia for the first time in 15 years.

“In Australia, there’s not a lot of variables to play with. It’s more about being tall or fast or accurate,” he said. “The way that England are setting up their fast-bowling cartel is the way forward to win in Australia.

“We’ve seen success from Gus [Atkinson], Brydon Carse, Mark Wood, and I think they’re trying to get to Jofra [Archer] up and about for that Ashes series. There is the necessity for pace and bounce in Australia, and I don’t think that’s a secret for anyone.

“The way the Australian team has taken wickets consistently for the last decade has been with the guys that are over 6 ft 2, bowl fast and don’t really miss the spot. Naturally, there’s a challenge for English bowlers going over to Australia because of that difference, but the way that the guys are setting up now, it gives them the best chance to perform.”

None of that, however, means Worrall will be turning down the England call, should it end up coming at any stage this year.

“Yeah, of course, I’ve said it before,” he said, when asked if he would like to play for his adopted country. “I haven’t thought about it. Everyone else keeps talking about it. I’m just going to go out and do my best for Surrey and hopefully enjoy another successful season at The Oval.

“It doesn’t faze me too much. It’s just one of those things where, as a professional athlete, there’s always someone with an opinion and someone that wants to get the next headline, or they want to figure out the next thing that’s going to happen in their career.

“But I think as a player, as soon as you start thinking about that and letting that enter your thinking, it just detracts from your potential as a player and a professional and as a person. So as far as I’m concerned, I’m not that bothered. Whatever happens will happen. I’ll try my best wherever I am.”