Unfair Dinkum! Aussie Nathan Sowter – “I’d love to play for England one day”

Sowter at Lords with the Shane Warne portrait in the Pavilion

Nathan Sowter is hoping to make a real impression in first class cricket this season for Middlesex. He’s featured mostly in the one day game so far.

Attending media interviews three days before the 2022 county season begins, it was clear the 29-year-old Aussie had been giving serious thought to the matter of what is needed to succeed in the four day game.

“I made my first-class debut in 2017 and have been trying to find my feet on the red ball scene which is obviously hard in English conditions and how the pitches have been at Lord’s.

“I haven’t played too many games across the last five years. It’s about trying to bowl at different paces and different speeds whilst trying to get yourself into a rhythm as quickly as possible to stay on for as long as possible when I get that opportunity.”

“The hard thing is that balance, I normally like to get wickets. In T20 fixtures, everything is happening so quickly and that’s part of the excitement. I do like that energy and excitement but it’s about developing the patience to bowl for a period of time and work the batter out.

“The key for me is to try and do that when building towards the season.”

All this inevitably led to a discussion about how, as a spinner, you bowl differently in the two forms of cricket. There’s clearly less immediacy and more wiggle room in a four day game:

“I think you try and get yourself into the spell and get your feet under the table to start the day, then you can bring fielders from out to in and get them closer to build pressure on the batsman.

“In the UK, people tend to start with fielders close to the batsman but then bring them out once you get hit, it’s the age-old Shane Warne thing, that’s my kind of method.”

Does he feel he can take more risks in the four day game? He’s actually quite sanguine about that and likes the challenge his trade offers the batsman in either form.

“You understand that with leg-spin bowling my best ball can get hit for six and my worst ball can get a wicket!

“Even though you may give them a boundary, that competitive edge is there, you’ve got them to play a big shot. That’s the fascination as a leg-spinner.”

“That’s the challenge. I suppose it’s called “Test” cricket for a reason because it’s a test of your patience and your ability to perform consistently.”

This led to the question where Sowter’s answer may lead to some interesting dressing room banter, especially one would think from Peter Handscomb.

The question was about his international ambitions. It began with the question as to how much he enjoyed the one sided Aussie victory in the Ashes, after which the conversation took a very strange turn:

“I’ve been in the UK since 2013, my mother and grandmother were also born in the UK, so I’ve definitely got English heritage from that side of my family. I’ve even been playing county cricket for around seven or eight seasons.

“It was disappointing to see the system (England Test side) get ripped apart, but the English team hasn’t performed how they would have liked to.

“I’ve still got family in Australia and they think I love watching the Aussies bash the English, so it goes both ways. Nowadays, I watch the cricket more than the outcome in that sense, I suppose you have to be a little more partial.

“I very much want to see English cricket do well, because, if the opportunity presents itself, I’d love to play for England one day. “

Changing the subject, I did ask if he thought there was a correlation between England’s poor test showings and the domestic calendar:

“We play so much early season cricket. From my point of view, we play too much red-ball cricket, too early which takes spin out for around four or five games.”

Before you know it, the season is done and you’ve played three games. It’s a hard one but I think they (ECB) are trying to get the balance right now, they’re trying to move more matches to the middle of the season which, you hope, produces batter spinners and better batters.

“I think the quality of four-day cricket we play could be the issue (behind England’s Test struggles).

“The more four-day cricket we can play in the summer will help the quality shine through because I definitely know from training with Middlesex and being around the game that there are, absolutely, high-quality players in the UK and there’s no reason as to why we shouldn’t be matching the Aussies or any other Test nation.”

With the season days away, Sowter addressed the challenges immediately ahead. He’s upbeat and believes there’s a good spirit around the entire club:

“We’ve got a new coach in and he’s given me the confidence that if you’re not in the team, it’s not all about the outcome (figures), it’s about the way you bowl and the chances you create.

“At Middlesex, want to get promoted in four-day cricket and we want to make the finals days. That’s the ambition.

“We want to put performances in that get ourselves promoted, or from my perspective, allow me to play in the T20 Blast finals day and help me win a trophy. That’s what I’m looking for this season.”

The season starts on Thursday with Billy Godleman’s Derbyshire the visitors.

Godleman knows the host club well. He was the youngest player to debut for Middlesex when he played against Cambridge UCCE in 2005, making his County Championship debut two years later.

He made his Lords debut that season scoring 77 against Northants. That was his fifth first class innings and his fifth half century. But he could not sustain his place in the team and left for Essex that August.