'When you get this cap it changes your life, you can walk tail'

TOM HARTLEY REFLECTS ON CRICKET JOURNEY

- TOM EVANS

FROM playing his first professional game to making his England debut in just over three years, it's clear Tom Hartley is going places.

Which is the precise opposite of what he sees as his greatest strength.

"I pride myself on going nowhere," he said, after his 10 overs in a high-scoring ODI victory over Ireland cost just 48 runs.

The left-armer bowled more dot balls and finished with a lower economy rate than anyone else in the match, and conceded fewer boundaries than any of his team-mates who bowled more than three overs.

He added: "It's weird, but it brings me more satisfaction going for less runs than taking wickets sometimes.

"As a spinner, sometimes that's your role, going nowhere - in the Ireland game, Rehan [Ahmed] picked up four at the other end, so it wasn't like we weren't taking wickets.

"They made the call-up on what I'd been doing and they didn't want me to change as a player, so it was great that they gave me the freedom to go out and do what I'd been doing for my county."

One consequence of Hartley's rapid rise he was still turning out for his boyhood club, Love Lane Liverpool Competition champions Ormskirk, as recently as last year - is that the 24-year-old hasn't played much 50-over cricket.