“My technique needed addressing” – how Robson hit top form after correcting flaws
Only England’s selectors will know exactly where Sam Robson now sits in the pecking order of potential top-order Test batsmen for this summer.
But the 26-year-old Middlesex right-hander has certainly thrust his name forward again with superb innings of 231 and 106 against Warwickshire at Lord’s, which broke a number of his county’s records.
Robson played seven Tests as Alastair Cook’s opening partner in 2014, scoring 336 runs from 11 innings at an average of 30.54 and making a maiden Test hundred against Sri Lanka at Headingley.
Since then, however, he has hardly featured in discussions about how England’s batting line-up should look in 2016, or beyond, with a moderate county season last year causing Robson much frustration.
He totalled just 891 runs from 16 County Championship appearances, with his season’s average only inching past 30 because of an innings of 178 – his lone century of a successful campaign by Middlesex, who finished runners-up behind champions Yorkshire.
“My game is in a good place at the moment,” said Robson, after breaking a 123-year-old Middlesex record by eclipsing Andrew Stoddart’s previous first-class match aggregate county best of 319 runs at Lord’s, set in 1893.
His match total of 337 runs is also six more than the previous Middlesex first-class match aggregate record for all grounds, while he is the first batsman from the county to score a double-hundred and hundred in the same game.
“I went back to Sydney during the winter and the plan was to play grade cricket out there,” added Australian-born Robson.
“But then I broke my thumb so I ended up not getting much cricket. I did, however, work quite a bit with Mark O’Neill, a long-time batting coach of mine, and since I’ve been back in England I’ve done a lot in pre-season with Dave Houghton and the other Middlesex coaches.
“I’ve made a few minor changes in technique, and some areas of my batting did need addressing – as has been highlighted since I played my Tests.
“I was disappointed last year not to get more than just that one big hundred, so I’m thrilled to back up the 231 by getting another hundred in the next innings.
“I’ve played the game long enough now to know that I will be starting out on nought again in our next match, at Durham, which is always a difficult place to go. But it’s a tough game being a batsman, wherever you play.
“As for England, I’m just concentrating on going out and scoring runs for Middlesex. If I do get selected for England again it will be because I’ve made runs at county level. It’s straightforward, really.”
