Surrey have lost their first two games in the “Bob Willis Trophy” aka this year’s slimmed down county championship.
But I don’t care, because they have such a good excuse. Not many sides could lose Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, Sam Curran and Ben Foakes (all of whom are in the England test squad), and Tom Curran, Jason Roy and Reece Topley (who were in the one day squad for the Ireland games), and still be much of a force to be reckoned with. Surrey did, and Surrey weren’t and aren’t. Their batting was especially terrible.
The thing is, once these squads were picked, nobody could leave, even if they didn’t make the actual team. Foakes has played no cricket at all during Lockdown, either for England or for Surrey. Sam Curran is now playing in the second test against Pakistan, but has only played one other test, I think.
Weird times.