The Analysis: Josh Inglis shows his class, now he needs consistency

ELIZABETH BOTCHERBY: Josh Inglis top-scored for London Spirit against Welsh Fire, posting 72 runs from 45 balls to finish The Hundred with 173 runs. However, the Australian’s white-ball stats for 2021 are hiding a flaw in his game: consistency

It took until their final match and a last minute bid to avoid the wooden spoon, but London Spirit finally demonstrated their batting chops, smashing their way to 163 for 5 against Welsh Fire to post their highest total of the competition. Young Joe Cracknell impressed, scoring 35 runs from 24 balls at number three, while Eoin Morgan contributed 25 runs from 12 balls – a much-needed explosion for the England skipper.

At the backbone of Spirit’s innings was Australian opener Josh Inglis, who scored 72 runs from 45 balls before falling to Ryan Higgins (caught Matt Milnes) with one ball remaining in the innings.

It was a controlled knock from the wicketkeeper-batsman, who picked off two sixes and one four in the powerplay to put his side in a strong position after 25 balls before sharing sizeable partnerships with Cracknell (73 off 43) and Morgan (37 off 20) to turn Spirit’s good start into a tricky target for Welsh Fire. His scorecard was mouth-watering – seven fours, three sixes, a strike rate of 160 – and earned him high praise from Darren Gough at the interval: "he can hit the ball anywhere."

And despite being overshadowed individually by Glenn Phillips on the day (80 off 35 balls), Inglis has finished his third T20 (or shorter) tournament of the year with another set of impressive statistics. In eight appearances in The Hundred, the 26-year-old scored 173 runs at a strike rate of 136.22, including 18 fours and five sixes.

Earlier in the English summer, he scored 531 runs at an average of 48.27 for Leicestershire Foxes in the T20 Blast, a huge 180 runs more than his nearest teammate (Aaron Lilley). Prior to that, there was the small matter of the 413 runs he scored for Perth Scorchers as they reached the final of the 2020-21 Big Bash.

In total, that’s 1,117 runs in 39 matches, including a whopping 121 fours and 38 sixes, since the start of last December.

Those figures indicate a player in immense white-ball form and one who has an outside shot at making the plane to the UAE as part of Australia’s T20 World Cup squad. However, they also illustrate how misleading statistics can be.

Take a deeper look into Inglis’s Blast numbers, for example. He started slowly with knocks of 34, 24 and 7 before exploding into life against Yorkshire with a 37-ball 82. Two matches later, he scored an unbeaten 103 (62 balls) against Northamptonshire. Jump to his final two outings and the numbers there were pretty exemplary – a 19-ball 42 against Notts Outlaws followed by 118 not out (61 balls) against Worcestershire Rapids. So far, so good.

But, in that six-innings gap between the Northants and Notts games, he passed 20 on just two occasions and posted a high score of 35. Indeed, in his 11 sub-50 innings, there were six scores of 20 or less, which is something of a problem when you are your side’s 'form' opening batsman.

^{Inglis representing Perth Scorchers and Leicestershire Foxes}

Likewise, in The Hundred, Inglis has two half-centuries to his name – 55 (43) against Southern Brave and tonight's knock at Sophia Gardens, both of which do a fine job of hiding his other, less attractive scores: 10 versus Birmingham Phoenix, 13 versus Trent Rockets, 2 versus Northern Superchargers, 19 versus Manchester Originals, and 2 versus Oval Invincibles.

There’s no arguing Inglis is a hugely talented white-ball batsman and one who has enjoyed a highly productive 12 months with bat in hand.

Flick, drive, sweep, scoop, the Aussie has every shot in his arsenal (he showcased nearly all of them in Cardiff), is capable of finding the boundary with irritating ease, and is a fine gloveman to boot. And in all honesty, if he was named in Australia’s travelling squad (unlikely as it is),  or earned himself a franchise contract outside of Australia or England in 2021-22, you couldn’t have too many complaints. He’ll almost certainly have a gig in the Blast and The Hundred next summer.

However, in order to become a complete white-ball player and make a truly compelling case for international selection, he needs to make his class consistent. He needs to become a reliable, fast-scoring anchor at the top of the order and on the occasions when he doesn’t go the distance, he’ll need to leave a platform in place for the next man to build on when he departs.

And then, when his statistics are not inflated by a handful of monster knocks, he may achieve the white-ball greatness he has the potential to produce.  

As for London Spirit? They clutched defeat from the jaws of victory, put to the sword by Phillips and later birthday boy Josh Cobb, before Qais Ahmad - a more unlikely batting hero you'll struggle to find - condemned Morgan's side to an eighth-place finish with twin fours off the final set. Disappointment for Spirit but a quietly successful sign off for Inglis.