Sussex’s George Garton speaks to Taha Hashim about bouncing back from a disappointing 2018, his all-round talents and his ambition to play Test cricket.
Softly spoken but destructive out in the middle. It’s a label that Jos Buttler has come to be associated by, his ‘f*** it’ mentality with the bat a striking antithesis to his off-field politeness.
From a similar mould is George Garton, the left-arm seamer from Sussex ready to rip your stumps out but shake your hand with real sincerity afterwards.
You’ve probably heard the name before. Garton grabbed headlines when he was called up to England’s senior squad ahead of the 2017/18 Ashes, just nine first-class matches into his career, possessing the prized commodity every side yearns for: blood-curdling pace.
“I got a phone call and within 48 hours I was in Australia in Townsville,” he tells wisden.com. “Everything happened really fast. It was pretty strange to go from my bedroom to sharing a bus with Cooky [Alastair Cook] and Rooty [Joe Root] 48 hours later.”
“I see George as an all-rounder and George sees himself as an all-rounder,” said Gillespie at Sussex’s pre-season media day. “He’s working really hard on his consistency on line and length from a bowling point of view, and he’s consistently working on his batting which is coming along really well. For me, I think he’s the best fielder in the country.”
It’s high-level praise from respected authority, and it may well be justified. Last Thursday, Garton hit an 88-ball 117 from No.3 in the batting order for a Sussex & Kent Second XI side against Middlesex Second XI in a one-day friendly game. It followed on from a 27-ball fifty the day before against the same opposition in a three-day fixture.
Nonetheless, Garton has yet to feature in the County Championship this season, and Sussex have plenty of pace options at their disposal; even with Jofra Archer at the IPL, Chris Jordan, David Wiese and overseas recruit Mir Hamza are bowlers of international pedigree, while Ollie Robinson enjoyed an excellent 2018. Garton’s batting prowess could be key to him grabbing a place in the line-up.
And yet, what remains his key selling point is the fact that he is a rare species: a truly fast English bowler. Quietly confident, it’s a title that doesn’t faze Garton.
“Fifty-over cricket and T20s come more naturally to me because of variations and it’s a quicker and faster game so I feel more at home with those two, but I’m definitely looking to push on and make improvements in my red-ball game just as much.”
A call from England may be some way away, but once the talk of Townsville, Garton remains a prospect of intrigue.
