“Josh Hill? Six-foot pile, bowls left-handed, 80 to 90 mph in velocity. Swings it, not too different from the likes of Jimmy Anderson. He’s 20 years old … good farming stock.” It’s nothing. A big gamble, isn’t it?”

And, well, when you put it that way… no, I guess it’s not.

What it is, however, is perhaps the clearest indication of McCollum’s determination not to be bound by English convention, which is saying something in itself. Because he hasn’t exactly been shy about parading his style-killing ways over the last two and a half years of baseball, but supporting this latest hiccup about Hill, he’s certainly thrown his most left-field. What is the choice?

“We hope he’s OK, he can go in there and get ten turns … we have no idea, but it doesn’t matter,” explained McCollum. “We see him as somebody worth investing in, and worth giving him opportunities for. And whatever happens, we’re going to wrap our arms around him, and make sure that He knows he’s firmly in our sights for the future.”

The optics are phenomenal, either way. At least when you consider that the biggest beneficiary of Hull’s selection could be another unusually tall 20-year-old in England’s ranks, who after first coming to the attention of the selectors. Boasting just ten first-class wickets, and whose off-spinners. The right-hander is likely to bite a little hard after Hull’s big boots sneak through the crease a few times in the rough outside the off-stump.

And there we have it. Despite Hill’s first-class run for Leicestershire this season, there are a few key stats, a sprinkling of positive sentiment, and an understanding of the recipe for Test success. Shires

“The talent we’ve introduced has exceeded expectations, if I’m being completely honest,” McCollum said. “You hope guys get better soon, but you’re not after that instant gratification when you pick them. If you’re doing that, I think you’re guessing.

“We look at these guys and we think they’re going to be good. It might take a little time, but they’re worth investing in. Zach Crowley was a good example of that a few years ago. Among them. Some of the other guys have come in faster than I thought they would, and that’s incredibly encouraging, and probably a testament to Stocci’s leadership and the leaders within the setup.”

Take, for example, Rory Burns and Dom Sibley, who were briefly England mainstays under Chris Silverwood but are now heading into their stroke-less summer of 2021, or Ben Foakes, whose Bay Example glovework cannot atone for the limitations with the bat that England pointed out last time. tour of India, and which had previously been overshadowed by his perfectly respectable first-class average of 38. Elsewhere in Surrey’s line-up, there is Dan Worrall, a soon-to-be England-trained seamer whose methods in home conditions, even at 33, will no doubt be tested in countless Tests given half the chance. Will have taken wickets … as much as Chris Rushworth, or Sam Cooke, or yes, James Anderson can still expect to do.

And yet, England is no longer looking for it. It probably came with a jolt of recognition at Lord’s last week, when – in the absence of Mark Wood, and with Atkinson a step below his pace – England found themselves victorious thanks to a hard-working fleet of four right-backs. coped with The arm-medium pacers, all clocked between 82 and 87mph, is exactly the sort of line-up that led the selectors to vow “never again” after the woes of the last Ashes tour.

So the brutal but unemotional ditching of the lucky Matthew Potts, whose crucial first innings at Lord’s saw two wickets fall, cannot disguise the fact that he was working despite his skill at the limits of his abilities. And if the selection of a lean and raw left-back seems like overpaying, it feels like a true reflection of England’s pre-season promise to begin recruiting those weapons, around the time of Anderson’s axing. For what they will need. A win in Australia in barely 12 months.

“We need to point out that county cricket and Test cricket are probably slightly different games,” McCullum said. “If we were picking a county side, it would look a bit different to a Test side. So our understanding of what the counties are doing, and the decisions they make, may always be ours. Don’t stick around, and that’s fine.

“We don’t do anything despite them, we fully understand that they have a different job to do. To shape them, and to give them opportunities and the process to get them to that level. Accelerating what we think they can achieve.”

A subtle difference for Hill is that he will not be debuting under the direct tutelage of Stokes. Instead, it will be the first new cap of Pope’s interim tenure, and therefore an added responsibility for a captain who is already feeling some heat after scoring 30 runs in his last four innings.

McCullum, however, has no doubts about Pope’s suitability for the role, citing his aggressive captaincy in England’s fourth-day victory at Lord’s, or his ability to bounce back into form that He showed that earlier this summer with a century against the West Indies. And two more fifties during England’s 3-0 win.

“It was only two Tests ago, he was scoring runs and playing really well, right?” McCullum said. “No. 3 is a very tough place to bat here, he has done very well for us in the last two years in that position. Since he has taken over the captaincy, he would like to score more runs, but you don’t. You don’t always get what you want.

“In my mind, it hasn’t affected his leadership, which is very important,” he added. “I think he has grown up a lot in the two Tests as well. His best session in charge was probably the last session (Lord’s) where he became very aggressive and put a lot of pressure on Sri Lanka with the fields he hit. The set and carrots he dangled.

“He’s been great. I’ve been really impressed with how Poppy’s been able to handle the job so far. And it’s great because Stokes is our leader, and ultimately you have to make sure things go wrong. If you’re not the leader for a series or two, it’s a huge credit to Stokey that he trusted Poppy, and a huge credit to Poppy that he managed to stand up.