Bess: Lord’s debut the stuff dreams are made of

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England spinner Dom Bess has described the opportunity to make his Test debut at Lord’s as the stuff of dreams even if the result didn’t go England’s way.

Bess made a handy contribution with the bat scoring a fifty on debut having got the call up to the England Test team while shopping at IKEA.

The tweaker said the moment was something of a bitter sweet one as his teammate at Somerset Jack Leach had to pull out with injury.

In his column for the Somerset County Gazette Bess wrote: “It’s not often that you go from furniture shopping with your girlfriend to making your Test debut at Lord’s, but that’s what’s happened!

“While I was over the moon, I was absolutely gutted for Leachy.

“I’m sure that he would have been in the squad if he hadn’t suffered a freak injury, and I have no doubt he will come back stronger and do what he does best – taking wickets.

“To make your debut for your country at the Home of Cricket is the stuff that dreams are made of.”

Bess also made his debut for Somerset against Pakistan and was pleased that he could receive his Test cap from county legend Vic Marks.

He went on: “I seem to be making a habit of making my debut against Pakistan; they were also the opponents when I played for Somerset for the first time back in 2016.

“It was great to have all my family there on the first day at Lord’s and what made it even more special was that I received my England cap from Vic Marks.

“He’s a Somerset legend and as a fellow spinner he was able to offer some great advice.

“To walk out on to the field as an England player was an amazing feeling and one I will never forget.

“Obviously, the result wasn’t what any of us wanted but to have scored a 50 on debut was pretty special.”

Bess said the whole squad were committed to coming back strong in the second Test and having put in the work came back to level the series with Pakistan with the spinner himself falling just short of a fifty having come in at four as nightwatchman on day one.

He wrote: “The whole squad worked really hard ahead of the second Test, and that showed in the performance.

“Jimmy [Anderson] and Stuart [Broad] got a bit of stick in the press after the first game, but they showed that they are still right up there with the best last weekend.

“They led the attack in completely the right way and that got us way ahead of the game! It was a pleasure to watch them bowl.

“On the batting front we got a great start from Keaton [Jennings] and Cooky [Alastair Cook], and everyone chipped in as a team.

“A special mention has to go to Jos [Buttler] for taking away the game and putting us in a serious position on day three!

“I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity I got as nightwatchman and really tried to capitalise on that.”

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