Ed Barnard flourishes again to reassert reputation as one of circuit's best players

Northwood (second day of four): Middlesex 188 & 180-6, Worcestershire 191 - Middlesex lead by 177 runs with four second-innings wickets remaining

Scorecard

Once Worcestershire get beyond the sadness of Ed Barnard's impending departure, they will reflect on his development into one of the best cricketers in the country.

In case you'd missed the announcement – the lower-profile unveiling of two men, along with Moeen Ali, making the short journey from New Road to Edgbaston this winter – Barnard is off to Warwickshire, a leading county on a Test ground with a berth available for a team-balancing allrounder.

It is a shame for the county who grew him, handing him a professional debut as a teenager, and it adds another name to the list of those at Worcestershire – and clubs of similar stature – who have gone elsewhere in search of the final step-up.

As reigning domestic champions, to an extent Warwickshire had the pick of the circuit for a successor to Tim Bresnan, only to plump for the man down the road, whose progression in the last two seasons has been remarkable to the point that his exit for Division One felt like an inevitability, especially in an age of uncertainty around the future makeup of the red-ball structure.

Until last April, he'd never scored a first-team hundred but had been a regular source of cheap wickets, with 158 at 23.5 apiece between 2017 and 2020. Then, he tonned up against Essex and flicked a switch: since then, he's averaged 59.2 with the bat. Almost half his career runs have come in the last 15 months.

He ended unbeaten on 69 at Merchant Taylors' School, the highest score in the match so far and the most authoritative display from any player in the top six on either side. He faced the first ball of the day and summarily drove it for four.

^{Worcestershire are embroiled in a low-scoring thriller against Middlesex (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)}

Barnard played for England Lions in 2018 and four years earlier for England Under-19s; there has always been a sense that he would become the player of today, Worcestershire's pivot at No.6, with a batting average now four points above his bowling equivalent. Only seven men – Ben Compton, Shan Masood, Harry Brook, Wayne Madsen, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ben Duckett and Sean Dickson – have more runs this year.

They were 49 for 4 when he came to the crease, having lost 4 for 27 on a competitive surface that nipped and bounced; when he ran out of partners, his team had a three-run lead.

There were some on social media who have disputed Barnard's selection since the revelation that his future lay elsewhere, but his commitment to the cause – he has been on Worcestershire's radar and pathway since playing early age-group cricket for Shropshire – has never been in doubt.

In the week of the move's official confirmation, he churned out his third century of the season, albeit in a losing cause but once again from a position of significant weakness. Then, they were 57 for 4 when he walked in.

At the start of last summer, he was a No.8, demoted to the status of a batting bowler, having seen his numbers decrease year-on-year between 2017 – when he passed fifty on five occasions – and 2021 – when he made 84 runs in six innings. At the time, he spoke of the need for a change in mindset, the kind that Moeen discussed when playing for England as a bona fide batter among tailenders, and his maiden century was the catalyst for a confidence that he had the game to do it more often.

Moeen's return to his hometown county after 16 years away has naturally claimed the bulk of the headlines, but his appearances have been an increasing rarity in Pear green. How they fill the void left by Barnard, though, will be more complicated: established allrounders are hard to come by.

^{Barnard is set to join Warwickshire next season (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)}

He swung the ball both ways at different points in Middlesex's second innings, pushing the ball across the left-handers and away from the right-handers. He only has one wicket in the match, a result more in keeping with his recent returns.

It was Dillon Pennington who starred with the ball, like Barnard, another child of Shrewsbury, who spent much of the winter in Australia and was at times lethal on a lively pitch that bore more resemblance to last year's shootouts than this season's runfests. The delivery that did for Jack Davies wasn't quite unplayable, but it left him with little place to go, and there is a feeling across both camps that the ball is swinging for longer than at most points this summer.

In a low-scoring game that has moved along apace since the first morning, Middlesex have the upper hand. Whether that remains the case into days three and four – should this game go so far – will depend, to a healthy degree, on one of the leading players in the land.

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• Ed Barnard to join Warwickshire from Worcestershire