Credit Ramps for Hameed’s belief
Alex Smith sees Haseeb Hameed make his highest score of the season
Haseeb Hameed got his mojo back after a timely message from England batting coach Mark Ramprakash. Lancashire opener Hameed notched his highest score of the season with an unbeaten 77 in a gritty five-hour and 219-ball showcase of patience.
Hameed was left 23 runs short of a deserved and much-needed century as rain wiped out the final two days to leave Lancashire level on points with Hampshire in Division One.
And with Keaton Jennings struggling to hold onto his international dreams, Hameed spent last Friday at Old Trafford netting with Ramprakash in an attempt to re-find the form and regain his Test spot.
Hameed said: “I really enjoy batting with Ramps and I had a really good session with him there.
“He said ‘the game is in good order, all you need is one score’ so that gave me a lot of confidence hearing that from the England batting coach. That net was really good and being around the group was quite nice.
“Ramps is very confident in me understanding and knowing my game. He doesn’t try to tinker too much. He reassured me and gave me confidence that my game is in a good place.”
Before the Hampshire game, Hameed had only ground out 214 Championship runs in a bitterly disappointing campaign.
And despite his first fifty of the year he is not thinking about a recall just yet having made three Test appearances last winter.
He said: “I’m just focused on trying to perform well for Lancashire right now.
“At the same time I’m hopeful and confident that if I can do that for Lancashire then further honours will come but there’s a process for getting there.
“Everyone wants to play for England and that’s definitely my ambition. It’s about scoring runs for Lancashire now and hopefully that call will come.”
Hampshire were rocked by the news batsman Rilee Rossouw and wicket keeper Lewis McManus would miss the remainder of 2017 with fractured fingers.
“It’s a big shame,” head coach Craig White said. “It’s still sinking in so we’ll sit down and have a chat about where we go from here for the rest of the season.”