Young at heart Adam Lyth not yet ready to open a chippy or buy an ice cream van

HE will be 37 in September, an age when many players have retired, or are thinking about retirement, the more famous ones to a career in the media for which, by and large, they are spectacularly unsuited.
There are still plenty more runs to make and autographs to sign for milestone man Adam Lyth. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.comThere are still plenty more runs to make and autographs to sign for milestone man Adam Lyth. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
There are still plenty more runs to make and autographs to sign for milestone man Adam Lyth. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

Adam Lyth is not likely to mutate into the next Sir Alastair Cook, his former opening partner for England, who has swapped the dressing room for a television studio and also has a column.

Rather, when he does hang up his bat (may that day be a long time hence), Lyth is more likely to be found asking “salt and vinegar?” or “one scoop or two?”.

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For this is a man with traditional tastes of the no-nonsense kind.

Indeed, as he reflected on Lyth’s remarkable longevity, with the left-hander going into Sunday’s Vitality Blast game against Derbyshire at Headingley needing 11 more runs to become the first man to score 4,000 for Yorkshire in the T20 format, Ottis Gibson, the club’s head coach, believes that Whitby’s finest is a long way yet from his preferred next career.

“He still absolutely loves the game of cricket,” said Gibson. “When I speak to him about other stuff outside of cricket, I think he said that one day he wants to go and open a fish and chip shop, or buy an ice cream van or something in Whitby. But he’s not ready for that yet - that’s to come later.

“He’s still got a lot more runs to make, he’s young at heart and really enjoying the game at the moment. He loves it in the dressing room and he feels that the dressing room is a good environment, and he’s leading from the front.”

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According to Gibson, Lyth will not need telling that he is on the brink of yet another milestone, one made more striking by the fact that Yorkshire’s next-highest T20 run-scorer is Andrew Gale with 2,260.

Gibson jokingly added that Lyth, who missed the last match at Northants with an arm injury, probably did so purposely just so he could reach the 4,000 at his beloved Headingley.

“He will know all about it (the milestone),” laughed Gibson. “He probably didn’t want to play at Northampton because he wanted to do it at Headingley!

“His passion for the game is the same as it always was. It shows in the way he’s batting; he’s having a great season.

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“He had a great winter, too. He came in and spent a lot of time on his game.”

Specifically, Gibson said that Lyth worked hard on his ramp shot - something that may be unfurled as the tournament progresses.

Lyth barely has need of it at present, given that his existing array of shots seems to be working very nicely thank you; his half-century in the opening match of the T20 against Worcestershire built on an outstanding first half of the County Championship programme, Lyth scoring 603 runs in seven games at an average of 54.81, with three hundreds and two half-centuries.

“You haven’t seen him ramping yet in the matches,” added Gibson. “He practised that all winter, so I’m sure that will come out at some point.

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“What I like about coaching ‘Lythy’ is that, of course, he’s a senior player, and he’s very experienced, but he’s still open to learning, and in the winter we did a lot of stuff around white-ball cricket and white-ball skills.

“Hopefully, he’ll bring the ramp out at some point because he practised it all winter and he’s really good at it, too. He’s a fantastic player.”

After a slow start to his T20 career, with five ducks in his first eight innings, and two other single-figure scores, Lyth’s 20-over game has effectively gone from strength to strength.

He still holds the record for the highest T20 innings played in England, an unforgettable 161 against Northants at Headingley in 2017, made from just 73 balls with seven sixes and 20 fours.

Worldwide, it is the fourth-highest T20 score on record, a list headed – appropriately enough – by the “Universe Boss” himself, Chris Gayle, with 175 not out in the IPL.

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