Mark Butcher has backed Liam Dawson over Jack Leach as “the best spinner England have got” after Dawson’s exceptional 2023 domestic season and expects him to be called up for England’s Test match tour of India next year.
Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.
Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, Butcher picked Dawson out as his domestic player of the summer. The left-arm spinner finished the 2023 County Championship with 49 wickets for Hampshire at an average of 20.00 in Division One. He also claimed two five-fors; only Essex’s Simon Harmer has taken more wickets as a spin bowler in the Championship than he has, albeit at a higher average. Dawson is also in the top ten leading run scorers in Division One, having scored 840 runs, including three centuries, at an average of exactly 40.
“Liam Dawson has had the most extraordinary year,” said Butcher. “He’s a very mature player now, very experienced obviously. His England days have appeared to be behind him, but he’s making such an incredible case for himself to be a spin-bowling all-rounder. If he doesn’t go to India then he really has upset somebody.”
England selected Moeen Ali as a spin-bowling all-rounder for this summer’s Ashes after Jack Leach was ruled out of the series with a stress fracture to his back. However, Moeen confirmed after the final match of the series at The Oval that he was once again retiring from Test cricket and would not be available for selection for the tour of India in early 2024. With several spin bowlers required in England’s squad for the five-match series, Dawson could be in line for a return to Test cricket.
“I think he’s the best spinner we’ve got,” said Butcher. “No disrespect to Jack Leach, but I think he’s a better, smarter bowler than Jack and also scores hundreds. He’s kind of Jack Leach plus two isn’t he? He fields in the gully, scores hundreds, he’s a very very good cricketer, and England don’t have very many of them who do what he does in terms of being a spin-bowling all-rounder.
“He’s pushed his case without pushing it. He says whenever we speak to him on the telly that he thinks his England days are behind him and he doesn’t really give it much thought anymore, he just wants to go out and win games for Hampshire, and he’s certainly been doing that.”
Dawson has played three Test matches so far in his career, the last of which came in 2017 against South Africa at Trent Bridge. He has seven Test wickets, as well as a half-century, which he scored in Chennai in 2016. He made a return to England colours last year after a four-year absence, playing three ODIs and five T20Is in 2022.
“There was a brilliant knock that he played at the back end of one of the seven Pakistan T20 internationals in September of last year,” said Butcher. “He was one hit away from a heroic rear-guard run chase win with the bat that included some Bazball striking. And then of course in the One Day Cup against Leicestershire recently where he got them to the brink and scooped one down fine leg’s throat that he probably could have hit back over the bowler’s head for six. He’s just a very good cricketer, end of.”
