Former England assistant coach Paul Farbrace has, once again, lavished praise on James Vince, claiming that the Hampshire batter could yet “have a fantastic international career”.

Speaking to Wisden Cricket Monthly in 2019, Farbrace – who was assistant to Peter Moores and Trevor Bayliss from 2014 to 2019 – described Vince as “one of the best players I’ve ever had the privilege of working with”.

Vince, 31, has not played Test cricket since 2018 but has made occasional appearances for England’s white-ball sides in recent years. Called up last year for the three-match ODI series against Pakistan after a Covid-19 outbreak forced the selection of an entirely new squad, Vince celebrated his maiden international hundred at Edgbaston to seal a 3-0 win for the hosts.

Speaking to The Times about England’s ongoing Test batting woes, Farbrace was discussing selection during his time in the set-up when he mentioned Vince.

“I still think James Vince could have a fantastic international career,” said Farbrace, who is now Warwickshire’s director of cricket. “I genuinely do. I just wish we had been a bit more patient with him and stuck with him. We pick players for a reason, but we are very quick to pounce on them for the things they can’t do.

“Trevor [Bayliss] always talked about giving players one game too many rather than one too few, but I think we went through a spell — [Adam] Lyth, [Sam] Robson, [Alex] Hales, [Nick] Compton, people like that — where we gave them seven or eight Test matches and then dumped them. We never really stuck with people.”

In recent months Farbrace has been a prominent voice in discussing England’s struggles in Test cricket. Last December, he called batting coaching in England “lazy”.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Farbrace said: “We have gone away from the basics in our coaching. We have moved away from grooving technique. Coaching in England has become lazy. I don’t mean people are not bothered, but they are encouraging batters to play big shots and hit it round the ground. They want to be the batsman’s friend and I’ve been as guilty of that as anyone.”