Tongue, along with team-mate Gus Atkinson and Trent Rockets’ Ben Duckett, will play in Sunday night’s final at Lord’s before driving up the M1 on Monday morning to link up with England’s squad at Headingley. They train on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning before the first Test starts at 11am on Wednesday morning.England’s fast bowlers have been doing what they can to build up their workloads. Tongue, Atkinson and Sonny Baker – who missed out on selection for the first two Tests against Pakistan, but could yet come back into contention – have been bowling with red Dukes balls at the end of Hundred training sessions, and have been in regular touch with ECB pace-bowling lead Troy Cooley.This is also the cost of ceding control to private investors. Only two years ago, Atkinson was made unavailable for the Hundred final by the ECB in similar circumstances; good luck telling the RPSG Group that despite their multi-million pound investment into the Manchester franchise, their best fast bowler has been pulled out at short notice
Gus Atkinson was pulled out of the Hundred final last year, but private investment means that cannot happen now•Nathan Stirk/ECB via Getty Images
Tongue has only bowled 175 balls – just under 30 overs, in old money – across nine matches in the Hundred; he might expect to bowl that much in a day-and-a-half of Test cricket. In an ideal world, he would have hoped to play a first-class game or two in the build-up to a series to prepare his body for what is to come.
But the situation is clearly far from that, as Tongue himself acknowledged bluntly. “It’s crazy scheduling, obviously,” he said. “That’s part and parcel of being a cricketer, making sure you recover well; doing all the stuff behind the scenes which no-one sees and putting yourself in a good position to then change formats.”
Tongue should be an automatic starter for England in their four-man seam attack at Headingley. He had a quiet series against New Zealand, including his first wicketless match at Trent Bridge, but still has an impressive record of 57 wickets at 29.66 in his 12 Tests; his economy rate is high at 3.99 per over, but his strike-rate of a wicket every 44.5 balls is world-class.
Yet England acknowledged, when stacking their Test squad with seven seamers, that the tight turnaround may force them to make unwanted changes. Atkinson and Tongue may yet pull up just fine and be ready to go, but they will surely breathe a sigh of relief if Joe Root wins the toss and chooses to bat first on Wednesday.
It was a similar situation last year, when England played an ODI that started less than 48 hours after the Hundred final and were duly rolled by South Africa, in a day/night game that was over as a contest long before the floodlights came on. Coincidentally, that game was also at Headingley; cricket fans in Leeds must feel like they have been royally stitched up.
There is a short break in England’s schedule immediately after next year’s Hundred, but the 2027 calendar creates its own challenge. The Hundred is pencilled in to start on August 3, the day after the fifth and final Ashes Test is due to end; Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, said that players and franchises would have to use “common sense” around availability.
The positive for England is that, despite the schedule, their fast bowlers look in good health. English quicks dominate the lists for quickest deliveries and highest average speeds in the Hundred this season, with Brydon Carse, Atkinson, Tongue and Baker all cranking it up at The Oval on Friday night.
Tongue has bowled sharply throughout, and is the second-highest wicket-taker this season. “The body’s feeling good,” he said. “I’ve been recovering really well during the Hundred, obviously getting certain gym stuff in as well, and running, and it’s those little top-ups that are going to keep me going. Obviously Test cricket’s very demanding, but I’m ready if selected.”
Injuries have limited his white-ball career to date, but he was a good find for England’s T20 team in their 4-0 series win over India, blowing them away with his pace at Trent Bridge. “His pace is up, he bowls good lengths and creates good angles,” Jos Buttler, his Super Giants captain, said. “He’s a wicket-taking bowler, as he is in all formats.”
Tongue’s T20 strategy is disarmingly simple: crank it up, aim for the top of the stumps with the occasional yorker and bumper, and bowl the odd slower ball at the death. It worked perfectly in his first over against Sunrisers Leeds: Mitchell Marsh skied to square leg, and Zak Crawley was not only pinned in front but, crucially, took a review with him.
It meant that when Harry Brook was struck outside the line by Baker and given lbw, he had no recourse to challenge an incorrect decision. “Thankfully, we didn’t get on the [wrong] end of him,” Tongue said. He returned soon after to have Dan Lawrence well caught at deep midwicket, then had Liam Patterson-White caught off a cutter.
“We’ve just got to make sure we reset, recover well tonight, and then go again on Sunday,” Tongue said – and he will be going again a few days later, too.
Matt Roller is a senior correspondent at Cricinfo. @mroller98