Ben Gardner recounts the first statement of David Gower in Test cricket – a fully controlled pull for a boundary, which spoke of the man’s imperious class and self-belief.

It’s Edgbaston, 1978, and a Test debut for the 21-year-old left-hander, David Ivon Gower. With Mike Brearley having been run out, Gower walks to the middle with England holding the upper hand over Pakistan.

The first ball Gower faces is a gentle, short delivery from Liaqat Ali, which he seizes upon and pulls imperiously through the leg-side for four. Eleven runs later he mistimes a drive but is dropped at mid-on, a second gift from Liaqat. Gower is eventually dismissed for 58, an early marker in a Test career that will see him rack up 8,231 runs, passing Geoffrey Boycott’s then-record run-tally for England.

I must confess to having been born two years after Gower’s last Test but, thanks to photos like this one, I feel like I know what it must have been like to watch him live, to experience the thrill, the anticipation, and the unpredictability.

It is the moment immediately after that first delivery which is captured in this photo, and it contains so much of what characterised Gower as a batsman: the lack of tension in the forearms, which show how the ball was timed and not bludgeoned, and the balance on just one set of toes, like a pirouetting ballerina, which leaves you wondering if a photo taken a second later would have him staring straight down the camera.

But along with the style, there is a risk in the shot that came to define Gower. It was far from a conscious attempt to dominate, with Gower later saying: “I hooked the first ball for four and thought ‘Heavens, what have I done? It could have gone anywhere. Suppose I had been caught?’”

It was that impulsiveness that made Gower so fascinating, as if he couldn’t resist trying to leave a beautiful gift to the game whenever the opportunity was there, and even sometimes when it was not. There were of course times when it didn’t work – had Liaqat not dropped him on 11 this innings would have been remembered very differently – but it was more than compensated for by those many occasions, like that very first ball, when it worked to glorious effect.

First published in October 2016