George Bartlett picking brains of experienced teammates as he sets his sights on red-ball silverware

MATTHEW POTTER: Bartlett, still just 22, finds himself as a regular member of an extremely good team, and among his peers are current and former senior England internationals, not to mention bona fide legend Marcus Trescothick on the coaching staff

Somerset have only signed two batsmen from other counties in the last 20 years: Steve Davies and Nick Compton. This might be surprising to who doesn’t follow the county closely, but there’s a clear reason for this - they’re very, very good at producing homegrown talent.

And although Davies does remain a key member of the side, this year has been full of defining innings by academy graduates.

George Bartlett is one such player, the 22-year-old middle order batsman remains a consistent presence in the red-ball side having debuted in 2018, averaging a little below 30 in 28 first-class matches.

After coming through the age-groups, Bartlett was breaking international records before he had even debuted for his county, scoring 179 away in India, the highest total by an England Under-19s player overseas.

Did this help him settle into the first-class game? “It was a great help,” he tells The Cricketer. “Playing for the Under-19s is a great honour for everyone who gets the chance. To travel the world when you’re 17, 18 is a great experience – going to places like India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

“You wouldn’t get those opportunities playing for anyone else so from that point of view it’s brilliant and a great learning curve. To then come back to Somerset and make my debut the year after on turning wickets like they were back then I think suited my game at the time.”

He now finds himself as a regular member of an extremely good team, and among his peers are current and former senior England internationals, not to mention England legend Marcus Trescothick on the coaching staff.

“There’s a great blend of experience and young talent coming through,” he observes. “Obviously we’ve got senior pros like Hildy (James Hildreth), Steve Davies as well as young players trying to make their way across different formats.

“Bants (Tom Banton) is obviously flying high at the moment with England and that’s great for him, he’s a very rare talent so it’s great to play with players like him and Hildy who have so many runs in their respective formats. I know a lot of teams say it, but we do really have it at the moment at Somerset.

^{Bartlett is one of four Somerset players to have registered hundreds in the Bob Willis Trophy}

“It’s been great to have Tres around, he was obviously a world-class player for a long time so it's great to draw on his experience, the lads all get around him and ask him all kinds of questions and try and get whatever knowledge they can from him really because he's so good at general batting knowledge, not just the technical stuff but your all-round game and your headspace too.”

One thing that stands out when looking at Bartlett’s statistics is his conversion rate, with four first-class tons but only three 50s; once he gets in, he rarely gets out.

“I think hundreds are what everyone looks at,” he explains. “If you aspire to go any further in the game and get higher honours, I think hundreds are what you need to be getting and getting those high scores.

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“Fifties can be good but at the end of the day everyone looks at how many hundreds you’ve got. They win games of cricket. Forties and fifties don’t necessarily win games of cricket. Getting big hundreds and converting as much as you can is not only helping yourself but it’s helping your team win games which is very important.”

He will be looking to construct another match-defining innings against Essex in the inaugural Bob Willis Trophy final. After narrowly losing out on a maiden County Championship title last year, drawing with winners Essex in a rain affected final game, Somerset have reached the final of this year’s replacement competition against the same opponents.

They have been ruthless, winning all but one game – which they would have won if not for the weather – and putting teams to the sword, particularly with a dominant bowling attack.

In a string of low-scoring games, Bartlett is one of the batsmen to have stepped up, scoring a glorious unbeaten century against Gloucestershire at Taunton.

^{Bartlett made 179 for England Under-19s on a tour of India}

“We’ve done well as a unit this year in the Bob Willis Trophy,” he reflects. “It’s obviously a shortened competition but we’ve gone at it at a good intensity and we’ve won a lot of games which is what is needed in this format.

“To play at Lord's will be great and hopefully we can win it. I’m feeling pretty confident going into the final. It’s great to get a century this year with a limited number of games but Essex have a really strong attack so it will be a big challenge for our batsmen. Hopefully we will rise to the occasion and put a big score on the board and then go one better than last year.”

Does he see the game as a grudge match, after being denied the opportunity to force a result last year?

“I think so, Essex are a really good side, they have a lot of bases covered but last year the rain did interrupt us and it wasn’t a properly contested four-day game but hopefully this year we’ll get the chance over four or five days to really go at each other and see who comes out on top.”

The atmosphere will be hugely different to last year’s one-day success at Lords, with no fans allowed into Lord’s due to current Covid-19 restrictions. But bartlett still can’t wait to play at the iconic venue once more, and he and his teammates are no less motivated – crowd or no crowd.

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“It would have been great to have as many fans as we could, especially Somerset supporters cheering us on,” he adds. “It will be different to last year but we know the Somerset fans and fans in general will be watching so we know they’ll be supporting us and be behind us, but it will be different.

“It's still great to play at Lord’s, as a young player you aspire to do it. Last year we had a taste of it and it leaves you wanting more. It’ll be great to be back. It will be different but nonetheless great to be back.”

Somerset have already exited this year's T20 Blast, a dramatic last ball defeat against Gloucestershire ending their campaign at the end of the group stage.

Bartlett is not yet a regular in the shortest format, with the batting firepower the county possesses often keeping him out of the Blast side. However, he was a regular in the county's successful Royal London One Day Cup success, watching from the non-striker’s end as the winning runs were hit.

^{He is one of a number of academy graduates in Somerset's first team setup}

He is level-headed about the lack of 50-over cricket this year, and like professional and casual cricketers alike, just happy to be able to play at all - but is also excited to get back to it next year.

“There’s an element of taking what you can this year, whatever cricket you get is a bonus,” he explains. “Last year, we had success in 50-over cricket and it would have been nice to try and defend it this year with another strong squad.

“But this year is pretty strange and we’re looking to take whatever cricket you can get and then next year we can look to defend the trophy. We’ve certainly got the squad and the capabilities to do so.”

Following the conclusion of the Bob Willis Trophy, Bartlett will start to look forward to next season, which figures to be a big year for him. He is driven in his goals, both from a personal and team perspective, with an elusive County Championship crown still on the minds of everyone at the county.

“As a team we really want to win that championship. Hopefully we do win a trophy this year and then push that momentum on to next year to compete and go deep in all three trophies and win at least one of them.

“The prestigious County Championship would be great, it’s the one we’ve been looking at for a long time so it would be good to go the extra step to get that one next year.”

Before then, for Somerset and Bartlett, an opportunity for red-ball silverware awaits, and would you bet against them?

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