Gareth Batty

Gareth Jon Batty (born 13 October 1977)^[1] is an English cricketer, more specifically a spin-bowler, and the captain of Surrey County Cricket Club since 2015.^[2] He is the younger brother of former Yorkshire and Somerset off-spinner Jeremy Batty.

Education

Batty was educated at Bingley Grammar School, a Voluntary Aided state school in Bingley, West Yorkshire.

Career

Batty began his county career with his native Yorkshire, after playing for England Under 19's, making his County Championship debut in 1997. Due to lack of opportunities he transferred to Surrey in 1998 where he played mainly one-day games. He joined Worcestershire in 2002 where he became the main spinner and came to prominence with the national team.

For England, however, he was largely the backup to Ashley Giles during the mid-2000s, although he did play four Tests in the English tour of the subcontinent in 2003, as conditions favoured the inclusion of a second spinner in a team. He was picked for the tour of the West Indies in 2003–04. Batty was the bowler Brian Lara faced when he scored his world record 400th run in the fourth Test Match in Antigua. He was picked as second spinner for the South African tour the next season.

The selectors continued to show faith in him, picking him for the two Tests against Bangladesh in 2005 when Giles suffered a hip injury – in the first, he did not bat, did not bowl, and but for Bangladeshi resilience in the second innings, he might have gone through the entire series without bowling. He has gone down in the spinning pecking order due to the emergence of Monty Panesar and re-emergence of Graeme Swann.

Batty was selected for the England Lions squad to tour New Zealand in the winter of 2008.^[3] In March 2009, Batty was called up to the England ODI and Twenty20 squad to tour the West Indies. He replaced spinning all-rounder Samit Patel, who dropped out due to fitness concerns, and Swann who returned home after the Test series to undergo an operation on his elbow.^[4] In July 2009, he announced his intention to leave Worcestershire at the end of the 2009 cricket season to seek fresh opportunities elsewhere. He rejoined Surrey on a three-year contract.

Batty was involved in an unsavoury incident while deputising as captain for Surrey in a Championship match against Somerset at Taunton in 2012. Murali Kartik, a spinner who had previously played for Somerset, ran out Somerset batsman Alex Barrow who was backing-up at the non-striker's end. Batty declined several invitations by the umpires to withdraw the appeal leading to bad feeling between the teams and around the ground.^[5] In August 2013, he was suspended from the T20 finals day after a clash with Somerset batsman Peter Trego. The ECB banned him for two games after he apparently physically confronted Trego and hurled foul language after dismissing him in a quarter-final match.^[6]

Batty was made permanent captain of Surrey in 2015^[2] and later that year took a hat trick to send Surrey back into Division One of the County Championship after two years in Division Two. An even better year with the ball in Division One in 2016, combined with poor form for Moeen Ali, led to calls for his recall to the England test team after its draw against Pakistan.^[7][8] Nonetheless, when Batty was recalled later that year for the tour of Bangladesh, he described his call-up as "surreal".^[9]

On 20 October 2016, Batty played in a Test match for England against Bangladesh, thus becoming the player who has missed the largest number of Tests between appearances, 142 games.^[10] Batty claimed 4 wickets in the game, finishing with figures of 1-52 in the first innings and 3-65 in the second innings.^[11]

References

External links

• Player profile: Gareth Batty from CricketArchive
• Player profile: Gareth Batty from ESPNcricinfo