Yas Rana speaks to James Bracey, the 22-year old Gloucestershire batsman, on his remarkable rise from being a student without a full-time contract to an England Lions number three in the space of 18 months.
As 11 Englishmen line up for the biggest game of their lives in front of a packed house at Lord’s hoping to become the first England men’s side to ever win the Cricket World Cup, attempting to do so on cricket’s first terrestrial television gig in 15 years, the England Lions will be getting their one-off four-day match against Australia A underway 61 miles away in Canterbury.
Appearing there, a world away from the proceedings at Lord’s, you have the likes of Sam Curran, Jack Leach and Ben Foakes – a trio who have starred in England Test victories over the last 12 months. You also have your county cricket titans. Players who have accumulated unignorable numbers, in some cases over many years – names who all followers of county cricket will know well.
Then you have James Bracey.
Bracey has more than made the most of the opportunity afforded to him by the MCCU programme. In less than two years as a full-time professional, he has established himself as a stubborn operator at number three. Difficult to get out, he was concerned prior to the 2019 season that he might be unfairly pigeon-holed as a red-ball specialist. In fact, his white-ball form this season may have as much to do with his England Lions call-up as his red-ball form.
Despite only making his List A debut in April this year, he averages a stunning 60.87 at a strike-rate of 108.94 from his first nine games in the format. Two of those matches came against an Australia A side boasting 2015 World Cup-winning seamer Josh Hazlewood – a man almost certain to play that first Ashes Test at Edgbaston next month. Bracey scored 154 runs off 134 deliveries across the two games.
Bracey admits that he was “a bit shocked” to receive the call-up from Ed Smith last Friday but he finds himself with another remarkable opportunity to further his career, a mere 18 months after it fully began.
In truth, it would take something remarkable for James Bracey to leapfrog the more established contenders for a top three Ashes berth in such a short space of time. But given the speed of his rise so far, you never know.
