Change in roles has Borthwick in contention
“WHEN you bat number eight, you almost bat like a number eight even if you think you can bat higher. You bat with ten and eleven a lot of the time and get a pretty 30 and get out,” said Scott Borthwick.
“If you do that at number three, you’ll get found out.”
Borthwick was talking about his career progression shortly after scoring his second century in Durham’s victory against Lancashire earlier this week.
It is a succinct summary of how his career has evolved since making his only Test match appearance for England against Australia at Sydney in early 2014.
The now 26-year-old was picked as a leg-spinner who could bat.
He has been out of the international reckoning ever since. But, now, he is firmly in the picture again – as a batsman who can bowl leg-spin.
Borthwick’s twin centuries were the feature of Durham’s first win of the season – secured during an enthralling fourth day as Lancashire failed to chase 325.
The left-hander, now set in stone at number three, has been Durham’s leading Championship run-scorer in each of the last three seasons, including 2013, the summer before he made his Three Lions bow.
“Hopefully the selectors are looking at me as a batter now because I’ve scored runs in Division One,” he said. “That’s what they want.
“Obviously I can’t look too far ahead because the side’s been picked for the Test against Sri Lanka. That’s out of my hands. But hopefully I can keep scoring runs and can chip in with some wickets as well.
“If they are going to pick me, it’s going to be as a batter. They’ll pick me on the runs I’ve scored, not the wickets I’ve taken because I haven’t got those numbers.
“It’s probably at the back of my mind, but not something I’m constantly thinking about.
“You don’t want to go to the middle worrying about what they’re thinking, you just need to focus on what you need to do.”
Borthwick was watched by national selector James Whitaker, who saw both his first-innings 134 and his 103 not out in the second.
“When I got picked for England, it was as a leg-spinner,” he said. “I’d only had the one season at number three for Durham.
“As a batter, I feel a lot more experienced and know my game a lot better now than I did then, where my strengths are, where my weaknesses are and what to do in certain situations.
“Obviously getting runs helps. I feel in pretty good form at the moment. Hopefully that can continue.”
Borthwick’s innings were contrasting ones. In the first, he helped his side recover from 46-2 on day one to push them beyond 400, sharing 123 for the fifth wicket with Paul Collingwood (97).
In the second, he batted more fluently to build on a lead of 85 during the second and third sessions of day three.
He became only the fourth batsman in Durham’s history to achieve the feat of twin centuries in the same fixture.
Given that statistic, you would think he would have been the first in quite a while to achieve it. Not true.
He was the first in only a month following Keaton Jennings against Somerset here in the first week of the campaign.
“One of the lads joked ‘that mustn’t have happened in years’. But obviously Keats did it in the first game,” he revealed.
“It’s a great feeling to get a hundred, but to go on and get a second is special.
“It was a decent wicket to bat on, but if you bowl hard and straight at the deck, it is quite hard to score.”