On multiple occasions during South Africa’s onslaught at Headingley on Tuesday, Sonny Baker would have been forgiven for wishing himself away to anywhere other than the end of his bowling mark.
Beginning in the very first over when Aiden Markram appeared able to access any part of the ground at will, and including the start of the fifth when England captain Harry Brook briefly deliberated over withdrawing the young Hampshire paceman, who had conceded 34 runs from his initial dozen deliveries, from the attack.
Baker, 22, went into the three-match series on a wave of hysteria generated by his Hundred performances, but must have felt like he’d been hit by a tsunami when Markram opted for the uber-aggressive approach in a chase of just 132.
With England defending such a modest total, Markram’s tactic of maximising the powerplay nullified any hope of a comeback and visibly disrupted Baker, who struggled for rhythm in his approach to the crease and littered figures of 7-0-76-0, the worst by an Englishman in his maiden one-day international outing, with several early wides.
Afterwards, England threw a protective cocoon around their new fast bowling find, with Brook saying: ‘He got a bit of tap at the start but the way he kept cracking on and digging deep was awesome to see and that’s exactly what we ask of every bowler. He might have missed his execution the odd time but Markram played some unbelievably good shots as well.’
Bowlers enduring nightmare debuts for England is nothing new, of course, and it tends to be what happens next that truly defines a player’s career. Some take time to recover, others never do.
Sonny Baker suffered an England debut to forget against South Africa on Tuesday evening
The 22-year-old fast bowler was defended by his captain by struggled for rhythm as Aiden Markram hit him all around the ground
Boyd Rankin, the Irishman selected for England at the end of the 2013-14 Ashes, tried to play on after a performance in Sydney marred by back spasms and cramp, in which he finished with figures of one for 81 across two innings.
With the benefit of hindsight, he should never have been on the field. Dogged by a shoulder issue in the build-up to that fifth match of the series, he was dosed up on painkillers, making the entire experience a blur. Discomfort in his hamstrings was later linked to that initial shoulder problem.
‘It’s one of those things I still look back on now 11 years on, and if I had that opportunity again, I would have done things slightly differently,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport.
‘But this was a chance to play at the highest level, to play a Test match against Australia and I felt I had to give it a go.’
Physically, he managed to get through two one-day internationals against the Australians later that January.
Psychologically, however, its impact was felt a couple of months later when Rankin quit Warwickshire’s pre-season tour of Barbados to return to the UK.
‘I sort of fell out of love with cricket for a while,’ he explains, recalling the work he did with Warwickshire performance coach Joce Brooks to rekindle it during 2014.
‘I spent a lot of time with her, and spoke to Jonathan Trott a lot as well after what he went through, listening to both his thoughts and experiences. It was a challenging time.’
Boyd Rankin was dosed up on painkillers during the fifth Test of the 2013-14 Ashes as he fought through the pain on debut
He would, though, go onto play for Ireland and impressed in 2019 when playing against England
Rankin came through, finishing 2014 with his lowest bowling average in an English first-class season (19.57) and winning the Vitality Blast with Warwickshire.
His real victory, though, was in refusing to be consigned to the one-Test wonder club, trebling his cap total by appearing against Pakistan after re-declaring for Ireland and applying the coup de grace of his career with four England wickets in a thrilling, low-scoring 2019 Test at Lord’s.
These personal experiences partly shape his view that Baker will be fine: ‘He’s a serious cricketer, so I have no qualms that he will have a very bright future ahead of him. In a cricket career, there will always be blips along the way and this was one of his.’
Baker need not look far to find someone else whose first efforts with the ball in a particular format proved calamitous.
Current team-mate Adil Rashid returned figures of nought for 163 – the worst figures ever by a Test debutant – in the first innings against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.
‘At times I wondered where that first wicket was coming from,’ was his take, after claiming a five-for in the second.
That immediate atonement was in stark contrast to another spinner Simon Kerrigan, who arguably never recovered from the mauling he took at the hands of Shane Watson in a dead Ashes rubber in 2013.
Having taken 46 wickets at 20 for Lancashire, the left-arm spinner was picked for The Oval Test, alongside another newbie Chris Woakes, but simply froze.
Adil Rashid (right) returned figures of nought for 163 – the worst figures ever by a Test debutant
Simon Kerrigan, though, arguably never recovered from the mauling he took at the hands of Shane Watson in 2013
It was as if his fingers had never released a ball before as a series of long hops were brutalised by Watson in a two-over spell that cost 28 runs.
Sympathy followed from members of the spinner’s union, who knew only too well the feeling of a delivery getting stuck in the hand too long and then landing halfway down the track after belatedly beginning its journey. He appeared to have visited the land of the yips.
Not so, according to the man himself, who says he was simply over-awed. ‘I remember the tunnel-vision, the sweaty palms, my heart racing. I had a panic attack on the morning of the second day trying to leave my bedroom. I couldn’t. I was in floods of tears,’ he recalled, when he retired in 2023.
He was still in his 20s when, five years after marking his only international match with figures of 8-0-53-0, he first walked away from the game, restoring confidence by playing league cricket for two seasons, before returning in the lockdown summer of 2020. But he never truly came back from his Oval experience.
Neither so far has George Scrimshaw, who won his first England cap alongside Jamie Smith against Ireland two years ago this month and marked the occasion by over-stepping six times in his opening two overs at Trent Bridge.
That night, he should have been celebrating an England win, but it was not the three wickets replaying through his mind as he lay awake on his Nottingham hotel bed, but the angst of being crippled by nerves when he walked onto the field.
‘I just didn’t know what was going on: Is my run-up wrong? Am I running in faster? Am I running in slower? Just horrible. The crowd cheered when I bowled a legal delivery,’ he says.
After 11 legitimate balls, Scrimshaw had conceded 35 runs. Even when Andy Balbirnie nicked the 12th to Ben Duckett, the celebrations were placed on hold as his front foot was checked by the TV umpires.
George Scrimshaw is yet to return to England duty after bowling six no balls in his first two overs at Trent Bridge in 2023
Baker is evidently far from alone when it comes to misfiring bowlers of recent England vintage
At 27, there is still time for the 6ft 7in beanpole to come again and pleasingly only Northamptonshire team-mate Ben Sanderson surpassed his 23 wickets in the group stage of this year’s Blast.
Even more so for another giant Josh Hull, only days out of his teens when he was a shock pick against Sri Lanka 12 months ago – a performance remembered as much for the dropping of one of the easiest catches in Test history as for collapsing in his action or conceding in excess of five runs per over.
So, contrary to how he might have felt in Leeds on Tuesday evening, Baker is far from alone when it comes to misfiring bowlers of recent England vintage. He just needs to get to the end of his mark again and put it all behind him.
