Alex Lees: Yorkshire title-winner proving his true worth to England

A first Test hundred and the floodgates could open for Alex Lees, the former Yorkshire batsman, believes cricket correspondent Chris Waters.

JOE ROOT did it; so too Adam Lyth.

What price Alex Lees following suit in the Headingley Test against New Zealand?

Root and Lyth both scored their maiden Test hundreds in the corresponding games against the Kiwis at Leeds in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

England's Alex Lees showed his true value in the second Test at Nottingham (Picture: PA)England's Alex Lees showed his true value in the second Test at Nottingham (Picture: PA)
England's Alex Lees showed his true value in the second Test at Nottingham (Picture: PA)
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Root hit 104 on his sixth Test appearance, and Lyth 107 on his second; it remains Lyth’s solitary Test hundred in a seven-match international career which, barring something remarkable, ended that summer.

While Lyth can count himself unlucky not to have had a second bite at the cherry somewhere down the line, amid a revolving door of openers since the retirements of Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, Lees can count himself unlucky not to have had a first crack prior to March this year.

Since making his debut against the West Indies in Antigua, Lees’s returns have been steady rather than spectacular, with scores of 4, 6, 30, 24, 31, 31, 25, 20, 67 and 44.

But he looks like a man on an upward curve, with the 67 coming in the first innings of the last Test in Nottingham and the 44 then laying the platform for a certain Jonny Bairstow to go berserk towards the finish.

England batsman Alex Lees picks up some runs during day one of the First Test match between England and New Zealand at Lord's Cricket Ground on June 02, 2022 in London, England. (Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images)England batsman Alex Lees picks up some runs during day one of the First Test match between England and New Zealand at Lord's Cricket Ground on June 02, 2022 in London, England. (Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
England batsman Alex Lees picks up some runs during day one of the First Test match between England and New Zealand at Lord's Cricket Ground on June 02, 2022 in London, England. (Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
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Lees heads into his sixth Test with an average a shade under 30 but with a spring in his step after recent events.

The new coach and captain team of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes has benefited him perhaps more than any other player.

It has freed him up and given him licence to play his shots, of which he has the full range to be successful at international level.

Lees’s strike-rate has risen from 27.39 in the Caribbean series to 49.52 in the ongoing rubber. He is starting to impose himself more and is setting the tone.

Alex Lees, left, and Adam Lyth, right, former a formidable opening partnership for Yorkshire during their Championship-winning years (Picture: SWPix.com)Alex Lees, left, and Adam Lyth, right, former a formidable opening partnership for Yorkshire during their Championship-winning years (Picture: SWPix.com)
Alex Lees, left, and Adam Lyth, right, former a formidable opening partnership for Yorkshire during their Championship-winning years (Picture: SWPix.com)
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Lees has always had presence and stature at the crease. Not for nothing did Jason Gillespie, the former Yorkshire coach, use to call him “Haydos”, the nickname of Matthew Hayden, his former Australia team-mate.

Like Hayden, Lees fills the crease in much the same way that Peter Schmeichel filled the Manchester United goal; there is an awful lot for the bowler and the ball to get past.

Lees stands tall and strong and went back to basics in Nottingham after fiddling unsuccessfully with his technique – see-ball, hit-ball has always been his best way.

Right from his earliest days at Yorkshire, Lees was marked down as a player to watch. Sages of the standard of Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Vaughan forecast England honours for the Halifax-born left-hander, and they were hardly alone.

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I remember Lees’s maiden County Championship century, on only his sixth first-class appearance, against Middlesex at Lord’s in 2013.

He had just turned 20 and the initials “AZ” Lees seemed appropriate for someone clearly determinated to navigate the route from newbie to international cricket as quickly as possible.

Even more vividly I recall his career-best, unbeaten 275 only two games later, in an innings victory against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, when, aged 20 years and 95 days, he became Yorkshire’s youngest double-centurion, beating Richard Blakey’s 1987 record by 130 days.

Lees was particularly delighted, for bragging purposes, to have eclipsed the then director of cricket Martyn Moxon’s career-best 274 against Worcestershire at New Road in 1994.

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He told me afterwards: “I just pipped Martyn, so to take him down was particularly pleasing. Andrew Gale almost did it earlier in the season when he got 272 against Notts at Scarborough. ‘Galey’ didn’t know what ‘Frog’s’ (Moxon’s) highest score was, but, of course, ‘Frog’ told everyone when he just failed to beat it, which is why I knew I’d gone past it here.”

Lees was a likeable lad and a good sort to interview. His opening partnership with Lyth was then a key factor when Yorkshire won the Championship in 2014, Lees winning the coveted Professional Cricketers’ Association and Cricket Writers’ Club Young Player awards.

He possessed a solid defence and a wide array of shots; he batted very much with the confidence of the player that we all saw in Nottingham.

But, as with so many young players, hiccoughs ensued and Lees struggled for runs.

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He had a particularly horrible time from late 2017 through 2018, the final year of his Yorkshire career, posting successive Championship scores of 11, 6, 4, 8, 6, 0, 0, 4, 0, 39, 0 and 1.

There was friction behind the scenes and he did not see eye-to-eye with various individuals; the subsequent move to Durham was the best for all concerned.

At 29, Lees is coming towards his peak years and there is every hope that they will be conducted on the highest stage.

He fits the McCullum/Stokes template perfectly and has the aura of a Hayden if not yet the track record.

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All that is missing now is a Test hundred on Lees’s ledger and then it could be a case of watching him fly.

So, can he make it a Yorkshire hat-trick of sorts at Headingley this week and emulate Root and Lyth’s achievement back in the day?

Don’t bet against it, for, as every Yorkshire supporter knows, this chap can bat.

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