Borthwick: I'll Never Give Up On England

Chris Stocks discovers that Surrey’s recruit from Durham wants a fast start to keep in the thoughts of the selectors.

To say Scott Borthwick’s Testde but was a hospital pass is an under statement. Yet the former Durham player is hopeful a strong first season at Surrey can propel him back into England contention.

Borthwick’s only Test came at Sydney in January 2014 when, at 23, he was pitched into a team who were 4-0 down and went on to lose the final match of an horrendous Ashes series inside three days in a humiliating whitewash against Australia.

Back then Borthwick was selected as a promising leg-spinner in the wake of Graeme Swann’s retirement three Tests into the series. Now, having re-invented himself as a top-order batsman, he is hoping to force his way back into the Test reckoning in time for this winter’s Ashes tour.

Places will be hard to come by given both Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings, Borthwick’s former team-mate at Durham, made promising starts to their Test careers as top-order batsmen during England’s otherwise disappointing 4-0 series defeat in India late last year.

Yet memories of that debut in Sydney and the fact he came so close to a recall midway through last summer have maintained Borthwick’s hunger for an international return.

The Sunderland-born batsman, speaking ahead of his County Championship debut for Surrey at home to Warwickshire today, said: “I don’t want to be a one-Test wonder.