The move to Hampshire has revitalised Gubbins’ career after he rode the highs and lows at Middlesex
Matt Roller02-May-2022During England’s Test series against India last summer, Rob Key wrote a scathing column for the about the standard of the County Championship. “For too long, Championship cricket has rewarded the trundler, and the wrong type of cricket… it does not resemble Test cricket in the slightest,” he wrote.”There is collateral. For every Tim Murtagh there are five Nick Gubbins, and for every Darren Stevens there are five Daniel Bell-Drummonds. These are young guys, full of promise, fighting back tears as they trudge back to the dressing room with a sore shin, wondering if a career as a first-class batter is actually feasible.”For Gubbins, this amounted to being damned with faint praise. Key, then a pundit rather than the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket, had marked him out as a batter of high potential, but one who has struggled to live up to his potential due to pitches that suited medium-pacers rather than fast bowlers and spinners.It was hard to argue with his point. As a 22-year-old, Gubbins narrowly missed out on an England call-up after he piled on 1409 runs at 61.26 in Middlesex’s title-winning 2016 season, as they drew 10 of their 16 games and played on flat pitches; across the next five years, he averaged 29.50 in first-class cricket and looked further than ever from international selection as Middlesex lingered in Division Two.Related
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“I did read that,” Gubbins tells ESPNcricinfo. “Murts said something like: ‘I wouldn’t want to live in a world where there are five Nick Gubbins.’ Well, one Tim Murtagh is enough for me – but he’s a good mate of mine and a legend in his own right.”He [Key] was obviously making the point that it’s been quite tricky to bat in the Championship over the last few years, and now he’s in the position to control and change things. So far, it looks like pitches across the country have been pretty good throughout what was a pretty good April, weather-wise. It’s a really exciting time for the county game.”It is an exciting time for Gubbins, too. Last week, he hit twin hundreds for the first time in his career, making 101 not out and 130 in Hampshire’s rain-ruined draw against Lancashire. Batting at No. 3 he twice dug them out of a hole, from 40 for 5 to 246 all out in the first innings and 12 for 2 to 344 all out in the second, all against an attack containing James Anderson, Hasan Ali and Tom Bailey.”Yeah, it was really nice because it happened when the team needed it,” he says. “We just needed to get some partnerships going, which is something we speak a lot about as a team. Luckily, Felix Organ came out and played really nicely and then on day three, it was Ben Brown who played beautifully.”They have a high-class attack with quality bowlers so it’s really nice to test yourself against the best. Jimmy will go down as the greatest-ever seam bowler. He’s relentless and moves the ball both ways, and then they had different challenges too with Hasan and Tom Bailey. It was a challenging week, but a very satisfying one as well.”
B-E-A-UTIFUL from @ngubbins31
What a way to start the day
HAM: 113-3 (38), leading by 119 runs.
Watch LIVE https://t.co/1EdOuh7KSS pic.twitter.com/Tz3IQtibBL
— Hampshire Cricket (@hantscricket) April 30, 2022