A monkey off the back for Ed Barnard

NICK FRIEND: The Worcestershire allrounder's match-saving hundred against Essex last week was his first as a professional cricketer, breaking his duck and breathing new confidence into the 25-year-old's game

For Ed Barnard, last week offered a sense of validation: at the 97th attempt, a first-class century.

In an unusual opening round of County Championship action that brought about six draws and 19 hundreds, some led to more acclaim than others: Darren Stevens became the oldest man since 1986 to reach three figures in England’s domestic competition; James Vince set out his claim for an international recall; Graeme van Buuren counterpunched Gloucestershire to a fine win over Surrey; Sam Robson offered a classy reminder of his talents; Billy Root shone in a game that was billed as his brother’s return to action.

At Chelmsford, Tom Westley – short of runs last year in the Bob Willis Trophy – found form in compiling a double-ton that seemed certain to nudge Essex towards victory as the quest began for a third successive red-ball title.

Only, Worcestershire are made of sterner stuff these days; Jake Libby, signed from Nottinghamshire ahead of last season, carried his bat in an unbeaten 180-run vigil, standing firm for 11 hours and 21 minutes. Just once – when Jason Gallian made 312 for Lancashire in 1996 – has an individual County Championship innings lasted longer, and then merely by 90 seconds.

But part of this toughening up process at New Road has manifested itself in the coming of age of a previously youthful side with a soft underbelly.

“I think there are quite a few of us now who are still young but have played quite a lot,” says Barnard, who at 25 sits centrally in that category, with 185 professional appearances now under his belt.

“We can’t really hang on to being a young, up-and-coming side now. We need to start showing that we’re an experienced team and that we’re here to be a force to be reckoned with in all formats. We want to be competing with the best and I think we’ve got such a good core group that we’ve got a really good opportunity to do that. I think this week gave us a start and a stepping-stone to take that forward this season.”

^{Ed Barnard reached his maiden first-class hundred in the draw against Essex}

For, as limited-over success sprouted – culminating in successive T20 Blast finals in 2018 and 2019 – results in the longer format regressed before a timely revival in the shortened 2020 campaign, when just one county earned more batting bonus points and only Somerset overcame them.

Speaking to The Cricketer ahead of this season, Brett D’Oliveira – this year celebrating a decade since his first team debut – described the team’s red-ball ambition as “winning games from 50-50 situations and showing some real grit and determination to get over the line”. In short, this is a conscious attempt to become more difficult to beat.

And so, the rearguard approach that staved off an Essex attack featuring Simon Harmer, Jamie Porter and Sam Cook perhaps shouldn’t have come as a surprise in the context of this new, battle-hardened Worcestershire: the signing of Gareth Roderick – like those of Libby and Riki Wessels in the two previous years – has added external knowhow to an otherwise homegrown side.

Barnard’s landmark, then, is the representation of that entire process.

“It has been a bit of a monkey on my back for a while now,” he admits. “I think it was a massive thing for me. I’ve wanted to do it for a while – to get there and to have that pride in getting there and now knowing I can do it.

“In my head, I know I’m a genuine allrounder and that’s what I want to be, so it was probably that one thing that I hadn’t done yet. People wouldn’t hold it against me as such, but they might point it out. Until you’ve got a hundred, it’s probably quite hard to look at someone as a genuine allrounder.”

To a degree, it is hard to believe that this was his first: 128 off 263 balls in 327 minutes, dragging his side from near-probable defeat at 145 for 6 to nailed-on draw at 389 for 7. “We’ve come away from it seeing it as a win as much as we can,” he adds. Understandable, having been 43 for 4 early on the third day.

“A lot of other teams might have looked at the score and gone: ‘Worcester, they’re gone now,’ given we were playing against the champions with the calibre of bowlers they’ve got. But the way we played and the way we fought, even on quite a placid pitch, to that draw gives us so much confidence moving forward.”

^{Barnard was at the other end when Tom Fell went to an emotional first hundred in five years during the Bob Willis Trophy}

Barnard recalls a conversation from early in his milestone day with umpire Neil Mallender, who asked him at the non-striker’s end whether he had a first-class hundred to his name.

“I was like: ‘No, I don’t actually.’ After that, I really tried to make it my day. Luckily, it all came together – everything seemed to go my way, with a couple of overthrows that went for four and a couple of close lbws that went my way.”

For the time being, it should bring to an end the gentle dressing room ribbing from club captain Joe Leach and former seamer Jack Shantry, both of whom have two first-class centuries, and from bowling coach Alan Richardson, whose solitary professional fifty was higher than Barnard’s highest score until the weekend. Even through age-group cricket, he wasn’t a prolific maker of hundreds, barring a couple at under-19 level and in the county’s second team: “There isn’t a big backlog of them, so I’m hoping to change that from now on.”

Stationed at No.8, there won’t be many sides on the county circuit with such depth, a theory supported by statistics: Barnard’s batting average, 27.65, is higher than his bowling average, 26.64 – the mark of a valuable allrounder, so they say.

The objective in time is to move up the order. He laughs at the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that he is on course to follow Worcestershire legend Graeme Hick in passing 1,000 runs before the end of May, but there is a serious point to be made on what the future holds. If it is true that the first step is always the hardest, then there is genuine hope that more will follow.

“I’m not expecting to go and score five, six or seven hundreds each season but now that I’ve done it, it has given me the confidence to know that I can do it,” he explains. “Before, I had the confidence that I could do it, but it’s different when you physically do it. It’s something I want to take forward now and get as many as I can to my name.

“I’m sure that the more big scores and the more hundreds I can make, the stronger my case will be to bat up the order and win more games for Worcestershire.”

He traces his recent improvements back to a debrief with head coach Alex Gidman at the end of 2019, when the pair felt that Barnard’s batting had stagnated: having averaged 29.25 in 2016 and 36.25 in 2017, those figures dropped significantly to 23.45 and 22.57 in the two campaigns that followed.

Any major technical changes went relatively unseen in 2020 – the consequence of Worcestershire’s wider upturn in red-ball form and the one-off playing condition brought in for last season that prevented teams from batting beyond the 120-over mark.

But the most important shift has been a mental leap, getting to grips with batting down the order in a role not traditionally held by an ambitious allrounder. Moeen Ali, a county teammate, has often spoken about the nuances of that particular challenge in an England shirt.

“It was the idea of treating myself more like a batter,” says Barnard. “There were probably times a couple of years ago when I was playing as a bowler who batted a bit, and I trained a little bit like that – I didn’t take as much care over my batting as I could. Over the last couple of years, I have tried to train like a batter and hit as many balls as I can.

“There are definitely times when you’re batting a bit lower down that you start thinking about it as a bowler who bats. There are lots of times you’ll get in with a batter, but all of a sudden they’re out and you’re in with the tail and you start thinking about having to get your runs quickly. It’s been a really good thing to speak to Giddo about: treating myself as a top order batter even if I’m not batting there.”

Having Libby for company certainly helped in that regard. Since arriving at New Road from Trent Bridge, he has scored 678 first-class runs in 10 innings and Barnard credits his partner’s natural calmness with keeping him alert as he edged closer to three figures.

“I don’t think any of us quite clocked how long he batted for until we saw some of the stats,” he chuckles. “He has been phenomenal ever since he came in and we’re very lucky to have him. He’s repaid he faith that we’ve shown in him; he’s a high-quality player, so he’s hopefully going to kick on and do some really good things.

^{Barnard's principal use in red-ball cricket has been with the ball; he claimed three wickets against Essex}

“Once I got closer to the hundred, that was a bit more uncharted territory for me. He was good at calming down and keeping me focused on the next ball. He’s such a laid-back guy, so I really enjoyed batting with him. We get on really well; he took all the pressure off me.

“My heartrate did increase a little. Luckily, it was towards the end of the session and their bowlers were a little bit more tired, so I got a few loose ones. I wasn’t in the 90s for that long, which was probably better for me, I think! With a few more dot-balls, I might have got even more nervous. It started to get darker when I was in the 80s and I was thinking I’d be stranded on 99 if I wasn’t careful.

“But Jake was very good at reminding me that I was batting against a high-quality team and they were going to keep coming at me and it wasn’t going to get ridiculously easy.”

Perhaps that was the greatest feather in the cap for the Libby-Barnard axis – that Harmer bowled 61.3 overs for three wickets, albeit in bitterly cold conditions that were hardly conducive to spin. In the past, Barnard has looked to sweep the South African, but coming to the crease after watching Ben Cox fall in exactly that manner – and with light rain falling, he adjusted his gameplan accordingly, focusing simply on staving off county cricket’s leading danger.

“I think as much as people say that they take everything out of it and watch the ball, there is always an element with someone like Harmer, who’s been the top wicket-taker for the last two years,” he explains. “You know he’s going to be a big threat – Porter and Cook as well, who’ve been exceptional. I think it makes you concentrate a bit more and you really have to switch on. The fact that they’ve got so many good bowlers means that there’s no let-up.”

Barnard isn’t one for tangible targets, but a 50-wicket season would mean usurping his previous record in a single season. Likewise, with the bat, he is keen to see incremental progress. “That’s the trajectory I want to be on, continuing to improve and beating my best,” he says.

And having finally broken his duck, he hopes to be met with a new self-belief when he strides to the crease going forward.

“For the last couple of years when I felt like I’d been around for a while and hadn’t done it, I think it was probably there in the back of my head. Hopefully, there will be a slight change now and a little more confidence there.”

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