Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Noah will be in a dressing room with Harry Brook, Joe Root and Ben Stokes this weekend.
It’s a huge honour to have been asked to be one of the 12th men for England during the first Test against India at Headingley, which starts on Friday.
Myself, Jawad Akhtar and Yash Vagadia will be on duty for the duration of the Test.
We’ve been told to report to the ground at 8.30am on Friday, and we’ll be involved in the warm-ups and things like that. Then, once the game starts, we’ll be running the drinks and, if and when needed, will go on and sub-field.
It will be a pretty cool experience, and I can’t wait.
It will be fascinating to be around that England dressing room to see how Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes operate.
We obviously know how England play on the field, with that aggression and positive mindset. But it will be nice to get an insight into how they speak to each other and what messages they’re giving in the changing room.
It’s going to be a fantastic learning opportunity for me as well. Not only will it stand me in good stead for the future if I end up fielding in front of the Western Terrace, for example, but I will have five days of badgering pretty much anyone I can for advice.
I’m sure I’ll also get a good stash of England kit as well. Bonus!
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yash Vagadia has sub-fielded for England before, during the 2023 Ashes Test at Headingley.
It’s going to be a really interesting series. It will be quite strange to watch an Indian team without Kohli.
We know the quality India have in their bowling attack with Bumrah, Shami and Siraj. Their batting, I guess it’s about who will stand up for them. Jaiswal has done well recently, so people will be looking at him to score a lot of their runs.
With England, we’re still getting used to no Broad and Anderson. This is probably the biggest test they will have had at home without the both of them. Sam Cook is likely to get a go, I’ve seen Jamie Overton’s in the squad as well.
There’s a few new faces who will want to make their mark in Test Cricket, and there’s not many bigger challenges than India at home. It’s going to be a really exciting series.
In terms of second-team cricket at Yorkshire, we’ve had a frustrating run of results in the T20 competition, winning only one of six matches so far.
We are actually in the midst of a short red-ball block which splits the T20 group stage, and hopefully we can get on a bit of a roll when that competition resumes in a couple of weeks.
The biggest frustration has been that we’ve been in a position to win a lot of our games and it just hasn’t happened for one reason or another.
The fact that it’s been a broken up block of T20 and red-ball cricket has been quite interesting to deal with. But that’s cricket nowadays.
Picture by Simon Wilkinson/SWPix.com. Jawad Akhtar will be on 12th man duties for England in the first Test at Headingley this weekend.
As young players who will hope to progress in the game, it’s something we will have to deal with more regularly given the scheduling these days, so we may as well start now.
I’ve actually been speaking to Adam Lyth in and around training quite a bit about various things, and he was saying how much worse it used to be given you could be playing a Championship game followed by a one-dayer and then a T20.
With playing all three formats in a week, it would be a nightmare for working on things.
Because I’m working on a few things in my game at the moment, he spoke about doing that in the nets and then trying to completely park it in your mind when a game comes around and just focus purely on watching the ball.
That’s been a good learning, but there’s no doubt it’s one thing saying it and another doing it.
I’m pleased with the progress I’m making, even if I haven’t got the volume of runs I’d have wanted consistently. I was delighted, though, to get 156 not out in our two-day draw against the MCC Young Cricketers on Friday to show that I’m on the right track.
I shared a third-wicket 257 with Jawad, who finished with 103 not out as we replied to 491-8 declared with 303-2.
Up to then, it was a challenge because all the stuff you’re doing in the nets is drilled into your mind, so it’s always going to be there when you’re playing and are out in the middle.
Picture by Punit Paranjpe/Getty Images. Captain and coach Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir will aim to make a flying start to the summer Test series at Headingley from Friday.
I’d say the work I’ve done has probably leaked a bit into my white-ball game, because my strike-rates have been a touch lower than they’d usually be. That’s a product of working on a few things and not being in full flow out in the middle.
As I said, I haven’t got the amount of runs I wanted to, but these changes I’ve made are aimed at making me a better player in the long run – for two, three or four years down the line. It’s not about making me better for just the next day.
Again, speaking to Lythy, he was saying that you will get found out with how you’re batting now. So you evolve your technique to get through that, and again that will be found out at some stage.
I watched a bit of the World Test Championship final on TV last week, and Beau Webster was batting. He’s relatively new to Test Cricket, and his technique was getting scrutinised ball after ball by the pundits. So even a batter of his quality will get found out.
Lythy reckons he’s had about 10 different trigger movements in his career as he’s adapted and evolved his game.
Those players who adapt the quickest are obviously the ones who are going to be the most successful.
Being on the staff now, this is my first year being full-time around the senior squad, and I’m loving it – really enjoying it. I couldn’t be in any better place than being at Yorkshire with the people who are around me.
Last week, I watched Joe Root bat for an hour in the nets, Dawid Malan was there too and Jonny Bairstow as well, coming back from his injury.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Will Luxton has scored T20 runs at first and second-team level.
We also have Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abdullah Shafique coming in soon, who I’ve heard really good things about.
If I can maybe adopt 20 percent of the things they do in training, that’s only going to stand me in good stead.
I was absolutely delighted for Will Luxton, who scored his first Blast half-century against Leicestershire last weekend.
We actually make a little bit of a joke about it when the second-team T20 competition comes around that he kind of owns it because he’s dominated over the last two or three years. He scores runs every year.
He’s got every shot in the book, and I’m so happy Yorkshire fans got to see at first-team level what we’ve seen game after game in the second team. I think he’s going to be a massive part of the club’s white-ball game moving forwards.
Finally, last week I re-signed with Beaumaris in Melbourne for this winter.
I spoke with Gavin Hamilton about it, asking him what he thinks I should do.
He said, ‘If you loved it and the people were all right and the area was amazing, then it’s an absolutely no-brainer. Get it signed and get back out there’.
Picture courtesy of Noah Kelly. Noah keeps wicket in white ball cricket for Melbourne club Beaumaris last winter. He will return for a second spell this winter.
I think there’s going to be a decent contingent from Yorkshire in Melbourne this winter, and there will obviously be some extra support out there given Mick Lewis goes back home and bases himself there with Victoria.
I’m looking forward to it already.
