Josh Tongue marvels at ‘surreal’ profession path

“I don’t think it’s really sunk in at the minute,” Tongue stated. “Being out for so long with my shoulder, having two operations on it, not knowing what I was going to be doing and maybe retiring, then getting that call-up for the Ireland Test, words can’t really describe how I felt. Now, being in the Ashes squad, it just feels so surreal.”

Tongue certified as a Level 2 coach early in his profession and, if the shoulder problem which saved him out of the sport for 14 months between June 2021 and August 2022 had not been resolved, he would have give up the skilled sport and adopted a special profession path.

“I would have gone into coaching,” he stated. “I’d have kept doing my badges.” He urged he would have tapped into “a few contacts” at his old fashioned, King’s Worcester, or labored with the previous Worcestershire batter Gavin Haynes, whose son Jack has performed alongside Tongue on the county and for England Lions.

“It’s a bit different: doing a bit of coaching or playing for England in an Ashes series. It’s very weird. I don’t think it’s really sunk in at the minute. It’s just crazy: where I was two years ago to now. Obviously as a young kid, I dreamed of being in an Ashes series. Now I’m in one, it’s just an amazing feeling.”

Tongue grew up watching James Anderson and Stuart Broad bowling; now, he’s in competition to interchange one among them within the fifth Test at The Kia Oval, beginning on Thursday. “It’s just amazing to be in the training, training with them and learning from them,” he stated, talking earlier than the fourth Test at a #Funds4Runs session organised by LV= Insurance at Stockport Georgians Cricket Club.

“The first couple of weeks in the squad, I was trying to find my feet, not asking too many questions as the new kid on the block. I feel like now I’m getting to know everyone, getting a bit more confidence with everyone in the squad, I can ask those questions.

“It’s totally different while you’re in competitors. There’s not a lot coaching between every Test match, so I attempt to take as a lot out of it as I can. Being on the pitch with Jimmy and Broady at Lord’s, them being at mid-on and mid-off, [I tried to] simply faucet into something they will provide.”

Tongue finished the Lord’s Test with figures of 5 for 151 in the match, bowling a prolonged spell of bouncers on the fourth day and dismissing David Warner and Steven Smith in both innings. “I did not assume I’d play at Lord’s and that first day, coming by means of the Long Room and listening to the nationwide anthem, I assumed, ‘Wow! I’m truly enjoying within the Ashes.'”

Having earlier trapped him lbw in a County Championship game, Tongue has dismissed Smith in three innings out of three this summer. “I did see slightly image of him within the nook, me, after which a rabbit – one thing like that,” he said, laughing. “I’ve seen some humorous stuff on Twitter.

“The one at Worcester, I did a bit of analyst work against him and tried to mix up the angles. He does draw you in and goes off his stumps. I tried not to play to his strengths which is obviously when you try to bowl straight, he’ll clip you through the leg side.

“I really feel like bowling that fourth or fifth stump and attempting to bore him and power him to do one thing unsuitable [is the way to go] and clearly that occurred within the first innings. Then, within the second, he was bumped out. It’s simply so good to bowl in opposition to him, actually.”

Tongue generally bowls in the mid-80s mph but has touched 90mph/145kph at times this summer, and has enjoyed the novelty of looking up at his speeds on big screens. “I used to be attempting to not look an excessive amount of however you naturally look generally and it was nice to rise up to that form of pace,” he stated.

“It’s a pleasant feeling. Growing up as a child, you wish to bowl as quick as you possibly can so getting as much as 90mph is a pleasant little achievement. I’m an enormous rhythm bowler: when I’m bowling at my finest, I do not attempt too arduous. My abilities, my top, my bounce, my tempo… after I do not attempt to bowl too fast, and my attributes sort of sink in.”

He has only played at The Oval once before, in a high-scoring draw in 2018, but fresh from a five-wicket haul in Worcestershire’s win against Leicestershire, Tongue is confident that he can make an impact there if selected this week. “From Lord’s, understanding I bowled properly there, I’ll take confidence for perhaps enjoying at The Oval.”

Josh Tongue was talking on behalf of LV= Insurance, title sponsors of this summer time’s LV= Insurance Ashes Series. Head to https://www.lv.com/gi/cricket to seek out out extra