Ask Zafar Ansari about his best moment of the season in tandem with Surrey teammate Gareth Batty and the answer provides an illuminating insight into his mentality.
The spinning all-rounder is part of England’s 17-man squad for two Tests against Bangladesh alongside veteran Batty, who has been recalled 11 years after his last appearance against the same opposition at Chester-le-Street.
Ansari chooses an early season Specsavers County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at the Oval, with pressure on the spinners to deliver victory on a day four pitch offering them ample assistance.
The 24-year-old ripped through the visitors to take six for 36 in 11.3 overs and bowl his side to the win – Batty took one scalp after four for 23 in the first innings – and looks back with pride on how he prevailed when the weight of expectation was on his young shoulders.
That outlook will be significant for Ansari if he is handed a Test debut in Bangladesh, where the spin-friendly wickets will offer hope but associated scrutiny. Discussing his objectives for a first England tour, the sense of the left-armer’s mature attitude only increases.
Six wickets for Zafar Ansari helped spin @surreycricket to their 1st Champo win of the season. Boom! https://t.co/LtnN8T1kvm
— County Championship (@CountyChamp) June 22, 2016
“Firstly it’s to get in the side,” he explains with an easy smile. “That will be a challenge with the quality we have.
“And then to play as though I belong in international cricket. When you go in as a young player I think the first step is to show why you’re there, show you fit, and from there deliver some big performances. If I can do that then that will be great.”
Ansari would have made his Test bow this time last year in the UAE but for a serious thumb injury – sustained fielding just hours after his selection was announced – which kept him out of all cricket for seven months.
That was reward for a coming-of-age Championship campaign where he scored 771 runs at 36.71 and took 44 wickets at 30.97. And despite a niggling back injury at the end of this season, Ansari feels he has regained that form.
“Having missed that tour last year I was mostly concerned with getting back to the level I was at at that point,” he says.
“I feel like I’m back in that place now and have developed some parts of my game, especially my one-day bowling and my batting.
“I don’t think it’s a case of taking my game forwards particularly, but to be in a similar position as this time last year after missing that much cricket is a boost to my confidence and suggests that I am moving in the right direction.”
With one-day captain Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales making themselves unavailable for the tour, security issues have dominated much of the build-up. Since the squads have been announced talk has moved onto the cricket, with Ansari hopeful of a chance in the favourable conditions.
“It’s an environment where the pitches are dusty, pitches do turn and they’re low so they do offer for a spin bowler. But at the same time you might not get the bounce and the pace that you might want in a perfect world so you still have to work hard to take wickets. As a batsman it is not going to be easy to score runs but if you do get in then you have to cash in.”
Four spinners have been selected by England Head Coach Trevor Bayliss, meaning that Ansari will be competing with his domestic captain Batty for the third slot in the team alongside Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.
Batty made his Test debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2003 and Ansari is keen to emphasise the leadership qualities that the 38-year-old will provide for the travelling squad, as well as his cricketing ability, in a testing environment.
“Gareth’s been playing good cricket for the last three or four years. He spins the ball and has a lot of consistency, he ticks every box you want as a spinner. I’ve learnt a lot from him.
“In the dressing room [at Surrey] he has various roles that he plays. On the field he’s very combative and he leads from the front in that way. But what he does very well is that he treats every individual in their own way. He knows how to handle different players as he’s seen a lot in his time.”