JUST seven years after watching Alastair Cook win the Ashes in Australia, Mark Stoneman will be opening the batting alongside him in tomorrow’s first tour match against a Western Australia XI at the WACA.
Back in 2010-11, Stoneman was watching on from the SCG stands as England sealed their first away win in Australia for 24 years during a series that saw Cook score 766 runs.
England have been searching for a reliable partner for Cook at the top of the order ever since Andrew Strauss, the triumphant captain on that tour, retired in 2012.
Stoneman is the 12th player tried in that position since then.
But after a positive start against West Indies at the end of the summer, it appears that England may have finally found the solution to their longest-running selection dilemma.
Australia will prove the ultimate acid test for the Newcastle-born Surrey batsman.
However, after spending nine winters playing Grade cricket in Australia this is a country and conditions he knows well.
It was during that winter seven years ago when Stoneman was playing in Sydney that he witnessed Cook first hand, as he did on the previous tour four years earlier during his first off season spell in Australia.
“Yes, I was here in 2010-11,” said the 30-year-old. “From memory I think I got to the SCG for one day of the Ashes.
“It is quite surreal because back in 2006/07 I was sat behind the bowlers arm as Brett Lee was steaming in bowling to Andrew Flintoff.
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