The likelihood is that Mark Footitt’s career will go down as a tale of what might have been. Too often he has been innocuous, too often he has not been fit enough to do himself justice. But when he gets it right, as he did to dazzling effect against Warwickshire at the Oval yesterday, the sense of imminent mayhem is positively thrilling. The real frustration is that England have been in sore need of a left-arm pace-man for a long time: Ryan Sidebottom was the last one they fielded in a Test match, and that was back at the Wanderers in January 2010. It took Footitt until his third over to find his line, and even then there was the occasional stray ball down the…

Source: The Times April 09, 2017 00:11 UTC