Craig Overton: 'I want to play for England as much as possible - not just the odd Test'

At the end of last summer, Craig Overton spoke to Ed Smith, England's national selector, and asked what he was doing wrong.

Ever since he ran the drinks in an ODI series against New Zealand as a 21-year-old, Overton had been in and around England squads, Lions trips and pace-bowling programmes without ever quite nailing his place down. He finally made an international debut at Adelaide in 2017-18, claiming Steven Smith as his maiden Test wicket, but appearances remained fleeting.

So after being calling into the side for the fourth Ashes Test in Manchester last summer, before he was left out without a second thought in the fifth, Overton took matters into his own hands.

"I've been involved a little bit, but it felt like I would play one match and then miss quite a few," Overton says. "So I spoke to Ed after the Ashes, just to try and figure out ways of improving so that I can not only get in the side, but also stay there.

"I want to be playing cricket for England as much as possible, not just the odd Test match, so it was a case of me trying to figure out what he believes I need to do to improve. He said they wanted me to bowl a little bit quicker without losing the accuracy that I have - that was the main thing.

"I don't think I'll ever be a 90mph enforcer. If I bowl 81-82mph at the minute, it's about trying to get to around 85-86mph and still have that level of control. If I can be in the mid-80s with the shape and control that I have, I'll be in the game most of the time."

That meant a winter of hard graft. After an ECB camp in Potchefstroom, Overton spent time at Somerset working with Jason Kerr and Stuart Barnes - head coach and bowling coach respectively - before linking up with Kerr again on the Lions tour to Australia. They have made two minor adjustments: trying to increase his speed in his run-up, and loading up slightly later.

"I've not generally been rapid through the crease," Overton says, "but I'm trying to up it a little bit and find the right balance. If you're too quick, you can't stay on your feet. I wear a GPS vest to measure my run-up speeds, and I know that if I'm around 22 km/h then I'm generally in a pretty good spot.

"And then the way I load up - I just want it to be slightly later, rather than being early and long. It might sound complicated, but in practice they're just minor tweaks."

The rewards have been evident this summer. After adding to that work in the England red-ball bubble during the West Indies series, Overton returned to Somerset last month and picked up 11 wickets at 11.00 in the first two rounds of the Bob Willis Trophy, with a 30-ball 53 thrown in last week for good measure.

"It feels like it's been quite a group effort with various different coaches involved, but there's still loads to work on," he says. "I know it's not going to happen overnight for me. But I'm feeling a lot better, and in a position to keep bowling those more intense spells.

"Before, I could bowl at sort of 80% [intensity] and feel like I'd done a decent job, but that's not going to get me picked for England. I've got to be bowling those 100% spells all the time, running in and changing the game.

"When I found out I could go back to play some county cricket it was quite nice, because I knew it would give me the opportunity to work on what we'd done in practice and put that into games, and see if it has done me any good. To play games has been massive."

There has been an additional concern for Overton this year, with his previous Somerset deal expiring at the end of the season. Despite widespread interest from around the grounds - and his twin brother Jamie deciding to leave the club for a new challenge at Surrey - he decided to stay put, signing a new three-year contract last week.

"Obviously there was a lot of interest, which was really nice because it shows that you're one of the better cricketers in the country," he says. "But for me, it wasn't about making a massive change, whereas Jamie potentially needed to have more opportunities than he was getting.

"He felt he needed to make that change to show he wants to keep improving and have that chance to get into the England side. But I felt like I was in a good place at Somerset. I've performed well enough here to get into the England side, and I didn't really feel like too much needed to change."

Of course, it would be churlish to suggest that Overton's form will fire him straight into the England side. All four of the seamers playing in the second Test against Pakistan bowl at similar speeds to him, with Jofra Archer and Mark Wood waiting in the wings and Ollie Robinson currently preferred as back-up.

But there are reasons for him to be positive. He was awarded one of three ECB pace-bowling contracts earlier in the year, and his six wickets in the Lions' victory over Australia A at the MCG in February may further his case for selection when the 2021-22 Ashes - the series that everyone involved in English cricket has targeted - comes around.

"I felt like I did okay in Australia last time, but it's generally quite a tough tour to go on," Overton says. "The Lions tour this winter was a big learning opportunity for all of us, so to go over there and not lose a game was a massive confidence boost. Hopefully we can take that into that tour next winter, win some games and bring the Ashes back."