On the most recent episode of the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast, its panel of Phil Walker, Jo Harman and Yas Rana finalised their England ‘Nearlymen’ XI – a team of England Test cricketers that never quite cemented themselves in England’s first choice Test plans either due to injury, loss of form or lack of opportunity, but who the panel really willed to succeed.
The previous week’s episode contained a lengthy discussion on the topic and a combination of that initial debate and listeners’ contributions on Twitter helped shape the final XI.
Michael Carberry
Carberry was perhaps unlucky to add to his six Test caps after finishing the 2013-14 Ashes series as England’s second leading runscorer behind Kevin Pietersen. In an interview with Wisden Cricket Monthly in 2019, Carberry said that he felt “unfortunate” to have been dropped after that tour.
Rob Key
The scorer of a Test match double hundred at Lord’s and over 50 first-class centuries, Key was unlucky to be a similar age to a number of England batting stalwarts – Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Paul Collingwood and Andrew Strauss are all within three years of Key’s age. His last Test appearance came against South Africa in January 2005 at the age of just 25.
John Crawley
Crawley is by far the most experienced Test cricketer on this list. Despite his 37 caps, Crawley rarely was a fully established member of the England side with his most productive time in the set-up arguably coming in an eight-Test stint under Nasser Hussain’s captaincy in Crawley’s early 30s.
Owais Shah
Shah was a key contributor to a famous England victory in Mumbai on his Test debut, hitting 88 and 38 from number three as England levelled the series in style, yet he had to wait over a year for his second Test appearance and a further two years for his third. Shah could only muster one half-century across three Tests in the Caribbean in 2009 and was quickly jettisoned under new head coach Andy Flower.
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James Taylor
Taylor was forced to retire at the age of 26 following the discovery of a potentially fatal heart condition. After replacing Jos Buttler in the Test team midway through England’s series against Pakistan in the UAE in 2015, Taylor played an important part in England’s 2-1 victory over South Africa later that winter, scoring a crucial 70 in their first Test win at Durban and taking a string of memorable reflex catches at short-leg off Stuart Broad at Johannesburg.
Ravi Bopara (c)
At the age of 24, Bopara became just the fifth English cricketer to score hundreds in three consecutive Tests. Unfortunately, that was as good as things got for Bopara in Test cricket. After an indifferent 2009 Ashes, Bopara went on to play just three more Tests for England – two against India in 2011 and once against South Africa in 2012.
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Chris Read
An outstanding wicketkeeper, Read struggled to replicate his success with the bat in first-class cricket in the Test arena. A first-class batting average of nearly 40 dropped to under 20 in Test cricket and despite making his Test debut at just 21 – only Alan Knott kept wicket for England in the 20th century at the same age – Read never managed to successfully establish himself as the long-term successor to Alec Stewart.
Alex Tudor
Another on this list who debuted young, Tudor’s career was hampered by a number of injuries that robbed him of his natural pace and bounce. Half of his 10 Test appearances came against Australia across three different Ashes series.
Toby Roland-Jones
After what seemed like an eternity of banging down the selectors’ door by consistent wicket-taking in county cricket, Roland-Jones eventually forced his way into the England side in 2017 at the age of 29. Roland-Jones finished that summer with 17 wickets at an average of less than 20 and looked set to play a central part in England’s Ashes plans that following winter before a stress fracture ruled him out of the tour.
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Injury restricted his 2018 season and by the time he regained full fitness in 2019, a number of younger bowlers had overtaken Roland-Jones in the pecking order. At 32, it’s not totally inconceivable that Roland-Jones adds to his four Tests, but it looks unlikely at this point.
Dean Headley
The taker of 60 Test wickets at under 28, Headley’s career came to an abrupt end at the turn of the century when injury forced him to retire at the age of 30, only three years after Headley initially broke into the England team. His finest day for England came in 1998, when his 6-60 helped England defend 174 at the MCG against Mark Taylor’s Australia.
Peter Such
A dependable off-spinner born in Scotland, Such boasts two Ashes five-wicket hauls (both in losing causes) from his 11-Test career. In fact, no England spinner who played at least 10 Tests in the 1990s took their wickets at a lower average than Such’s 33.56.
You can listen to the full episode of the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcaston the Podcast App or Spotify.
