Dom Bess’s Gqeberha five-for and England’s ongoing spinner dilemma
It was the eighth over of South Africa’s first innings in Gqeberha in January 2020 when Joe Root handed the ball to 22-year-old Dom Bess, and three overs later Bess had taken a five-wicket haul to become the first English spinner to claim the first five wickets of an innings since Derek Underwood in 1975. Despite that breakthrough, Bess’s England career proved short: he played a further 11 Tests, finished with 36 wickets at 33.97, and his final Test came against India in Ahmedabad in March 2021 when he was 23.
Bess had not been part of England’s original touring party in South Africa, arriving after Somerset team-mate Jack Leach fell ill, and the previous summer he had struggled for opportunities and gone on loan to Yorkshire. He later took another five-wicket haul in Galle and has found his county form recurrently examined against the backdrop of England’s selection debates. He is 29 now and, as he puts it, entering, as he sees it, “the prime” of his career.
Bess has been vocal about the gulf he sees between specialist spinners and occasional turn-bowling batters. “There’s a real difference between filling a gap and properly holding an end up, building pressure and getting wickets,” he says. “I think the public and the media don’t realise how big the gap is between genuine spinners and part-timers.”
He also describes the insecurity of the role at international level: “You’re sort of the first one to be dropped when they need rotation,” Bess says. “But then when you go to subcontinent conditions, you’re the first two or one to get the job done when it’s needed. There’s very little security there.”
The debate around spin in England has long cultural and personal dimensions, with spinners often cast as outliers. Monty Panesar’s public profile became mixed with non-cricketing moments, Jack Leach acquired cult status for a single run at Headingley and joked that supporters warmed to him because he looked like a village cricketer, and Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid have had their faith and British-Asian identities discussed alongside their performances.
There are also structural issues within the domestic game. A 2022 England and Wales Cricket Board high-performance review found that just 22% of deliveries in English domestic first-class cricket since 2014 have been bowled by spinners, the lowest proportion of any major cricket nation. The Kookaburra ball was introduced into rounds of the County Championship in part to encourage skills marginalised by the seam-favouring Dukes, yet counties are expected to produce Test spinners while operating for much of the season in conditions where spin is peripheral; Somerset, a county prepared to build games around spin, received a 12-point deduction after the pitch used for the 2019 title decider against Essex was judged poor for offering excessive turn.
England’s search for a long-term spin solution has produced a succession of candidates since Graeme Swann retired in 2013 with 255 Test wickets: Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Jack Leach, Dom Bess and Shoaib Bashir, among others, have all been presented at various times as the answer. Bess says the cycle has affected him personally: “Even though I never felt fully settled I did think I’d get a longer run,” Bess says. “At least I hoped I would. But I turned 23 and they wanted someone else. The cycle repeats. It can feel like a bit of a grind. All you can do is do your work and get wickets for your county. But I’m happy with where my game is going.” He also points to the late maturation of many spinners: “People forget that Swanny only got into the Test side at 29,” Bess says. “Then he played for five or six years in one of the most successful teams we’ve ever produced.” Last week both Bess and Leach took five-wicket hauls in victories for Yorkshire and Somerset respectively, and Bess added: “You’d like to be thinking that some important people are watching.”
The wider Test picture compounds the selection debate. The race for a place in next year’s World Test Championship final is intensifying while England sit seventh after five wins from 14 Tests, with Australia leading the standings on 80%, South Africa second on 75% and New Zealand third on 72.22%. Bangladesh and India sit on 55.56% and 53.33% respectively; Bangladesh’s historic victory in Darwin briefly altered the contest before Australia responded with an innings win in Mackay, and Bangladesh chief selector Habibul Bashar described his side as bullish with home series against West Indies and England still to come before a trip to South Africa. India revived a faltering campaign with a thumping victory in Galle and still have Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia to negotiate, New Zealand will play four Tests in Australia across December and January and have won one Test series there, and South Africa, having claimed a remarkable 2-0 series victory in India, will host Australia, Bangladesh and England before finishing their campaign in Sri Lanka.
England have played 14 Tests, lost eight and surrendered 14 points to slow over-rates, and even the recent innings victory against Pakistan—where seamers took all 20 wickets—has left them stranded on 29.76% in the WTC standings. England return to South Africa this winter for three Tests, and there is no guarantee they will take a frontline spinner.