With an England spot hard to come by and even harder to retain, James Vince’s focus on Hampshire is reaping rewards for the One-Day Cup champions.
There’s no shortage of discarded England batsmen around the shires these days, but Hampshire captain James Vince’s situation remains unique.
Having just lifted the Royal London One-Day Cup trophy following his side’s victory over Kent at Lord’s he’s now setting about the white-ball double, as Hampshire begin their Vitality T20 Blast campaign. It wouldn’t be a bad way to deal with being dropped from the England Test team.
Speaking a couple of days after that Lord’s win, as he and his Hampshire teammates rode on speedboats on the Solent to help promote the club’s T20 Blast matches, Vince – who pushed his one-day claims with 527 runs in nine innings during the 50-over competition, including two hundreds and two fifties – was well aware he could be waiting for some time for a return to the England set-up.
“He’s obviously very highly respected by the boys – he leads from the front. Whether it’s with bat in hand or in the field, diving around throwing himself everywhere, he speaks well to the boys, he’s got loads of respect from the lads and when he’s out there performing like he does the rest of them jump on board with him. He’s got to take a lot of credit for that trophy win.”
Though England fans will no doubt continue to debate the scale of the loss when it comes to James Vince, it is, at the moment, very much Hampshire’s gain.