Profile:
Marcus
Trescothick is a tall, burly left-handed opening bat and useful
right-arm medium pacer from the West Country. He hits the ball
very hard, and is a strong driver, but also adept at guiding the
ball into the gaps, a skill shown to advantage in the one-day
game. Not the quickest between the wickets, he is a good judge of
a run, and a fine slip fielder. His technique is simple, but
effective. Based on a straight bat, and an upright stance, he is
adept at leaving dangerous deliveries early in his innings, rarely
chasing the ball as it leaves him, and is patient in awaiting the
loose delivery. A useful second-change medium pacer, he has a
first-class hat-trick to his name.
Trescothick showed much early
promise, but when first called up to play for Somerset at the age
of 17 he had a dismal experience of first-class cricket, scoring
only 14 runs from his first six innings in 1993. Not discouraged,
he was given another opportunity the following season, and when
promoted to open he made a lasting impression, averaging over 48
in his first full season with two centuries. He captained England
Under-19 in 1994 against the touring Indians, making a century and
a notable double hundred in the representative matches. Further
success left him with over 1000 runs at Under-19 level, second
only to John Crawley amongst English cricketers.
Despite such illustrious
beginnings, Trescothick had to wait until he was 24 before
attaining a full cap, serving a further apprenticeship in the
England A tour of New Zealand in 1998-99, where he struggled, and
failed to make the A squad the following winter. A strong domestic
performance, combined with injuries resulted in a call-up to the
full England one-day squad in 2000, an opportunity he grasped with
both hands with a fine series of performances in the NatWest
Series against Zimbabwe and the West Indies.
Trescothick made an impressive
Test debut, with a patient half-century against the West Indies,
and by the end of the series had established himself as a reliable
opening partner for Michael Atherton. He scored 190 runs in three
matches, averaging a very healthy 47.5, and was an automatic
selection for the winter tours to Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Another
half-century followed at Lahore, but it wasn't until England
visited Sri Lanka at the start of 2001 that Trescothick hit his
maiden Test century. In the First Test at Galle he was the only
England batsman to show any real authority against the Sri Lankan
attack as he made 122 and 57 in the second innings, but he could
not avert an innings defeat. Although he made little impact on the
following two Tests, England won them to clinch the series.
By the following summer, less
than a year after his debut, Trescothick was seen as an integral
part of the England side. Centrally contracted for the first time,
he scored his first home Test hundred (again in a losing cause) in
the second innings of the second Test against Pakistan at Old
Trafford. Although he started the Ashes series with a duck, he
ended it as his side's second-highest run scorer (321 runs at
32.1) as England's batsmen sought, often unsuccessfully, to find
answers to Messrs. McGrath, Warne and Gillespie. It was Warne who
dismissed Trescothick in freakish circumstances in the third Test
at Trent Bridge. He had made 31 when he struck the spinner firmly
to leg but saw the ball rebound off the shin-pads of the close
fielder Matthew Hayden. Adam Gilchrist threw himself forward from
behind the stumps to scoop up a brilliant catch. To add to
England's frustration, TV replays showed the delivery to have been
a no-ball, and a batting collapse ensued.
It spoke volumes for
Trescothick's emerging reputation that after Nasser Hussain's
finger was broken by Jason Gillespie in the first Test, there was
widespread speculation that he might be asked to stand in as
captain. In the event the selectors opted for the greater
experience of Michael Atherton, but there was no doubting
Trescothick's future credentials. His chance duly came that autumn
in the fourth ODI against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, when Hussain
decided not to risk a calf injury sustained in the previous game.
Trescothick's debut was impressive; he won the toss (Hussain had
lost the previous 12), scored a rapid 52 to give England a flying
start, and the game was won by 70 runs.
In Zimbabwe and in the one-day
series which followed in India and New Zealand, Trescothick's
aggressive batting regularly put England into a competitive
position in the early overs. When he went on he could be awesome;
but for a staggering umpiring decision at Kolkata when he was on
121 he would almost certainly have won England the match, and his
95 off 80 balls at Mumbai set up the win that enabled England to
square the series. He began the Test series with a flourish (66,
46 and 99) in India, and highlighted his New Zealand tour with 88
in the Wellington Test. Despite a couple of dismissals in the 30s
in New Zealand, he rightly emphasised his determination not to be
deflected from his natural - and immensely entertaining - style of
batsmanship.
Such determination rewarded him
richly in the 2002 home series against Sri Lanka, in which
Trescothick's scores were 13, 76, 161, 81 and 23*. His magnificent
161 at Edgbaston came off 232 balls - a fair clip for a Test match
- and set up a match-winning total for his team. In the NatWest
Series he twice passed 80 and scored a century in the classic
final against India at Lord's. His season was cruelly curtailed in
July when, manifestly in the form of his life, he had his thumb
broken by a Graeme Hick drive whilst captaining Somerset in the
C&G quarter-final at Taunton. But on recovery he quickly
resumed normal service, with back-to-back half centuries in the
final Test against India and a hundred against Zimbabwe in the ICC
Champions Trophy. He also resumed an opening partnership with
Michael Vaughan which is the foundation of England's hopes of a
winter Ashes upset.
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