Olly Stone: A fast bowler's fast bowler

NICK FRIEND: Stone looks back on the last two years as a period of ups and downs: the highs of Test and ODI debuts, the lows of a recurring stress fracture that have halted his intriguing, encouraging progress at international level

Olly Stone isn’t afraid to admit that, in the difficult times, he has headed over to YouTube in search of his finest moments as a professional cricketer.

Sometimes, amid the injuries, the comebacks, the recurrences and the subsequent frustration, a little reassurance is required – a brief pause for reflection to alleviate any buildup of self-doubt.

The mind casts back to Dambulla and a first bowl in England colours in an ODI against Sri Lanka: quick, intimidating and everything that he had shown at county level for both Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.

Niroshan Dickwella was bounced out with his seventh delivery, all this before Jofra Archer had become eligible. England – and Stone – were onto something.

Since that series ended on October 20, 2018, however, he has played international cricket only once, a Test debut against Ireland at Lord’s. It has not been for a lack of trying; he was named in Joe Root’s squad for the red-ball series in West Indies just over a year ago but was ruled out with a stress fracture to his lower back.

After recovering and then impressing against Ireland, the same problem returned, curtailing an Ashes summer in which he had been strongly tipped to feature – a damp end to an encouraging fortnight.

The dismissals of Dickwella and Andy Balbirnie – his maiden Test scalp – are never far from the front of Stone’s mind. At times, they have been key to retaining positivity amid plenty of rotten fortune.

“When I got injured and you do sort of think about what you’re missing out on, it is quite nice to look back and think: ‘Ah, actually, I have done that,’” he says of his fledgling international career. “It was a great moment and something I’ll never forget.

“It’s weird to think about how much time has passed and how much cricket has happened since. When you look at it that way, it’s bizarre. Sometimes, you think: ‘God, that was a long time ago.’ But then actually, I look back at photos now and I do think: ‘That wasn’t all that long ago.’”

If Dickwella was muscled out by a straightforward mixture of brutal hostility and steepling bounce, then Balbirnie’s wicket was an example of the other side to his game: a full, quick, swinging delivery.

“It was a special feeling,” he recalls of his first ever appearance at Lord’s, “running up and seeing middle stump go – there’s always that little delay, people cheering. It’s something I’ll never forget.

“But it’s frustrating for me to not have had a full run to show people what I can do and perform at that top level.

“It’s such a good experience being out there. It’s not possible but I’d love to play every game from now on. It’s a good bunch of lads, a great atmosphere and there’s just nothing better than playing for your country.”

^{Stone dismissed Niroshan Dickwella for his first international wicket}

Stone had been included in England’s initial Ashes party, only to miss out on selection for the first game at Edgbaston, along with Archer. Soreness then saw him stood down, before further scans revealed the worst.

And given England’s wider injury troubles in the seam bowling department ever since – Archer, James Anderson and Mark Wood have all missed a considerable amount of action in the last eight months, it seems certain that Stone might have had a part to play.

“It was tough,” he confesses, “especially when you’re involved in the first Ashes squad. To then have it taken away from you was quite difficult. You try to split your time in terms of watching enough to keep you happy but then not too much that you get frustrated.

“It was nice to see the lads out there doing well in the World Cup when the first stress fracture happened. Seeing the lads steam in and people whacking it everywhere it did push me on to get fit again.

“But you get fit and then the same thing happens again – it’s trying to find that balance of watching enough to keep the time passing and ticking on, but also not watching too much that it gets you down.”

Before the pair of stress fractures, he had suffered a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury in what would end up being his last game for Northants back in 2016, landing awkwardly while celebrating the wicket of Moeen Ali. Even then, however, as an injured 22-year-old, he had eight separate counties make approaches for him before opting to move to Edgbaston. It is a mark of the esteem in which he is held; such pace – he has been regularly clocked at 92mph – is a rare and valuable commodity.

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Stone has leant on Mark Wood both as an example to follow and a firm friend within the England camp. The pair get on well and are cut from similar cricketing cloths: genuinely fast bowlers, who have been forced to fight off their share of setbacks along the way. When Stone was ruled out of England’s trip to West Indies early in 2019, it was Wood who replaced him.

He looks back to his first taste of international cricket in Sri Lanka, where the Durham man – perversely, perhaps – acted as a calming influence ahead of his debut. “Before the game, Mark Wood came up to me and said: ‘The way I went about it, I stood at the top of my mark and I took a deep breath. Take it all in. Before you know it, that moment’s over.’

“I followed his advice and did that. The way the first ball came out, just that relief. Although it’s international cricket, you still just run up and do what you’ve done in county cricket to get you where you have. If you’re looking for something to settle the nerves, to bowl an over like that certainly helped, I know that.

“He will probably say the same – it’s all those highs that keep you coming back and wanting more. It’s a great feeling doing what we do; we know we’re going to pick up little niggles here and there, but it’s trying to minimise those injuries and keep carrying on.

“Hopefully, if we create a good crop of us, we can keep going without some of us breaking down at times.”

^{Stone made his Test debut at Lord's against Ireland}

It is the nature of the beast, Stone knows, that what he does comes fraught with physical risk. It is why, to a degree, the ECB has launched its first trio of fast-bowling contracts – in essence, developmental deals handed to players in whom the national setup wants to invest.

Stone has one, while Craig Overton and Saqib Mahmood hold the others. Next year’s Ashes series on Australian soil is a target, with England looking to bolster their cartel of wicket-taking options overseas.

It remains a relatively new idea; the deals were only officially announced in late January and Stone accepts that, as and when cricket resumes, there will be some teething challenges to overcome.

“It just shows that they have a bit of faith in me and the confidence that I can get back fit and perform,” he explains. “I’m not saying I needed it, but it was definitely an extra boost to get out there and show people what I can do.

“The ECB have been pretty good with Warwickshire in terms of scheduling my return to play and things like that. I guess, going forward, they’ll be working even more closely in terms of maybe deciding which games I play and if I need a rest or whether I carry on and keep playing if that’s the best thing for me.

“It is going to be something that there is no right or wrong answer for at the moment. I don’t think there ever will be; everyone’s different. A lot of it, they’ve said, will come down to me.

“I’ve got to be honest in how I’m feeling – not just saying I need to play because there’s a potential selection or something coming up – and just trying to manage my workload in terms of trying to bowl so many overs a week, whatever that figure might be, just to keep me ticking over without doing too much or too little.

“Whether it means one game I might have to sit out and just do some sort of technical stuff in the nets with my action just to keep me ticking over, at this moment we’re still trying to figure out what is the best for me. Until you’re in the moment of bowling, I guess you don’t really know how you’re feeling and whether you need to have a break or carry on.”

^{Alongside Saqib Mahmood and Craig Overton, Stone holds one of three fast bowling contracts}

As Stone says, it is a complex balance. His injury record to date has restricted him to just 37 first-class appearances and he acknowledges that he is still learning his game. But he is what you might call a fast bowler’s fast bowler – “I just love seeing people bowl quick, it’s just great to see”, he says through a softly-spoken voice, topped up with a burning enthusiasm for his art.

It is an intriguing subplot to Stone: a gentle, reserved tone should not be confused for any lack of steel or ambition. His determination has been hardened by his battles with a body that has behaved as both friend and enemy.

“You like to see the batsman jumping around,” he chuckles. “You don’t want to see anyone get hurt, but to see batsmen jumping around and you feeling as though you’ve got one over on them is definitely great to see.

“When Woody got his first five-for in the West Indies – obviously I was gutted that I wasn’t out there, but for him to take his chance like he did was great to see.

“It would be amazing to go and play in [the Ashes next year] and to have five, six, seven fast bowlers running in, if we could, to terrorise the Aussies. That would be great and something I’m definitely – without looking too far ahead – trying to work towards.”

Ahead of England’s series win in South Africa over the winter, he attended a camp in Potchefstroom alongside Wood, Anderson, Overton and Sussex seamer Ollie Robinson; he looks back on the fortnight as “quite a big learning curve”.

It is one of many experiences in the last year – both good and bad – that he hopes have shaped him as an improved bowler, though after three long layoffs in a still young career, he admits that each feeling of niggling discomfort brings about a sense of concern.

“I think you always have that thought in your mind of: ‘What’s this?’ I think if you don’t worry, there’s probably something wrong. But the more cricket you play and the more games you get under your belt, I think you get to know your body a bit more.”

Still only 26 and with a taste for life as an international cricketer under his belt, Stone is beginning to reach that point. Injuries behind him, he has an opportunity to make a major impact.

“To put on that cap again would be great,” he reflects, thinking once more of those YouTube clips and the chance to make more. “And hopefully that isn’t too far off.”

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