Mark Butcher has backed Liam Dawson over Jack Leach as “the best spinner England have got” after Dawson’s exceptional 2023 domestic season and expects him to be called up for England’s Test match tour of India next year.
Wisden Cricket Weekly Speaking on the podcast, Butcher selected Dawson as his summer domestic player. The left-arm spinner finished the 2023 County Championship with 49 wickets and an average of 20.00 for Hampshire in Division One. He also called for two five-a-side competitions to be held. Only Essex’s Simon Harmer took more wickets as a spin bowler in the Championship, but his average was higher. Dawson is also one of the top 10 scorers in Division One, having scored 840 runs including three centuries, at an average of just 40 runs.
“Liam Dawson has had the most special year,” Butcher said. “He’s a very mature player now and obviously very experienced. Even though his England days seem to be over, he makes an incredible case for being a spin bowling all-rounder. If he doesn’t go to India, he’ll really piss someone off.”
England have selected Moeen Ali as their spin bowling all-rounder for this summer’s Ashes after Jack Leach was ruled out of the series with a stress fracture in his back. However, after the final match of the series at The Oval, Moeen once again retired from Test cricket and confirmed he would not be available for selection for the tour of India in early 2024. There should be more than one spin bowler in his five players in the England squad – the match series could see Dawson face a return to Test cricket.
“I think he’s our best spinner,” Butcher said. “I don’t mean to disrespect Jack Leach, but I think he’s a better, smarter bowler than Jack and he’s scored hundreds of runs. He’s like Jack Leach plus two. Right? He plays in the gully, he scores hundreds, he’s a very good cricketer, he’s a spin bowling all-rounder, there aren’t many players in England who play like him.
“He advanced his cause without advancing it. Every time we spoke to him on TV he thought his days in England were over and he didn’t think much of it anymore. He said no. He just wanted to win games for Hampshire and he certainly achieved that.”
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Dawson has played in three Test matches in his career, the last being against South Africa at Trent Bridge in 2017. He has taken seven Test wickets and also has a half-century, which he scored in Chennai in 2016. He returned to England colors last year after his four-year hiatus and in 2022 he played in three of his ODIs and five of his T20Is.
“It was a great stroke for him to play as a full-back in one of Pakistan’s seven T20 internationals last September,” Butcher said. “He was one hit away from a rearguard heroics victory with his bat, including a buzz ball shot. And of course, in the recent one-day cup game against Leicestershire, he brought an opponent to the brink and drove a shot down the throat of fine leg. , he probably could have hit a six over the bowler’s head. He’s just a very good cricketer, after all.”
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