Inspired by Warne, the Essex spinner hoping to ‘bluff’ his way into England’s XI

At the start of a summer where England have stated performances in county cricket will have far greater weight when it comes to selection, Matt Critchley’s heroics for Essex over the Easter weekend jumped off the page.

The leg-spinning all-rounder had been touted as an outside chance for an England call-up this summer before a ball had been bowled. Now he has to be under serious consideration after his stunning display against Hampshire led Essex to an innings win in the opening round of County Championship matches at Southampton.

Critchley’s career-best innings of 173 was impressive enough. He followed that up with a match haul of 6 for 9 in five overs of leg spin.

Following a 2025 season in which he averaged 42 with the bat and 30 with the ball, this was a statement of intent from a player who has every reason to be looking at the first Test series of the summer against New Zealand in June with optimism.

“It’s a lifelong dream to play for England,” Critchley tells The i Paper. “I like to think if you put the results on the board then opportunities will still come your way. I feel like the last few years I’ve put the numbers on the board that could potentially put you in that frame. I’d love to play for England.

“I’m only 29, I’ve played for a few years now but I don’t feel like that boat has passed. If I got an opportunity I feel like I can do pretty well.”

For those wondering where Critchley, who bats at No 5 for Essex, might fit into England’s XI, the role of spinning all-rounder that was occupied by Will Jacks during last winter’s Ashes is the most obvious.

The move to Jacks sidelined Shoaib Bashir, who had been the team’s frontline spinner, to the role of a spectator in Australia.

If England persist with an all-rounder in that spot, especially with Jacks currently at the Indian Premier League, Critchley might make an irresistible case for inclusion.

The recent admission from managing director Rob Key that England have been too loyal in terms of selection and will now place a greater emphasis on county performances has also been welcomed by Critchley.

“It definitely spurs you on,” he says. “They are the right words coming from that camp but I’m not going to sit here and say I directly get my motivation from hearing them say they’re going to look at county cricket. I want to win the Championship for Essex, I want to be the biggest contributor to wins because ultimately that’s what I think helps you get picked.”

The jump from county cricket to Tests is a big one. But it’s a reality not lost on a player who counts former South Africa captain Dean Elgar as a team-mate at Chelmsford.

“Exactly,” says Critchley, who moved to Essex from Derbyshire in 2022. “As someone who wants to play, the intensity of Test cricket, and Dean says it, is just different to what we play. But unless you’ve played it you don’t know.”

One barrier to entry for Critchley to Test cricket is the traditional English distrust of leg-spinners. But he’s had possibly the best mentors anyone could have in Australian great Shane Warne and his understudy Stuart MacGill.

Critchley had a session with Warne at Lord’s in September 2016 as part of an England & Wales Cricket Board spin camp.

“It was amazing,” he says of meeting Warne, who tragically died at the age of 52 in 2022. “He was a hero of mine growing up and a hero to a lot of people, so that memory of meeting him was pretty surreal.”

And one bit of advice he gave you that still sticks with you today?

“He said always try to get in the battle and just bluff your way through every event,” Critchley says. “I think whether you think you’re on top or not, if you can bluff your way through it and bluff the batsmen then it gives you an advantage.

“It’s something he was famous for – he’d say every series he’d come up with a new ball. Whether it was a zooter or a flipper or whatever and, essentially, he bowled a leg-spinner, a straight one and a googly. But he had that aura about him that you can’t match. There’s only very few people that have that.”

Critchley’s link with MacGill, with whom he spent three winters in Sydney from 2016, has been more enduring.

“We used to train at the SCG twice a week with Stuart and play grade cricket on the Saturday,” he says. “It was brilliant. They were great years and really formed my cricketing journey and how I want to play. I still message him now, send videos to him asking his opinion on stuff.”

The good news for Essex, and potentially England, is the fact Critchley feels he’s improving as a bowler. “Sometimes it feels like people forget I bowl or they say I bowl part-time because I bat at five,” he says. “Whereas I feel I’m getting better. I love bowling. I want to get better, I want to be a first spinner going forward, I want to bowl as many overs as I can.”