Owais has the skill to upset McGrath again

Mike Gatting13 April 2012

Owais Shah has no sooner played his first few games for England than Glenn McGrath is describing him as too cocky. That alone tells you how impressive he has been.

If the Australian fast bowler is getting stuck into him already, the young Middlesex batsman must be doing something right.

Far from getting upset by McGrath's comments, Owais should take them as a compliment. He has arrived on the international stage in some style, showing his ability to score quick runs at the end of the innings at Bristol in his first match, and then following up with a very mature 62 against Pakistan at Lord's.

Not only does he have the talent to play at a higher level (most of us knew that) but he also has the nous.

Eighty per cent of sport is played in the head and it was not being able to get his mental approach right that has held Owais back.

Time and again at Middlesex he would get out for low scores, yet without any discernable change in his technique he is now scoring big hundreds and double centuries in county cricket. Owais' attitude was always good and he is a hard worker who was more frustrated than anyone by his failures. But the connection just wasn't being made upstairs and it needed a combination of events to turn things around for him.

Firstly, he spent a very productive winter in Perth. As Middlesex coach, I wanted to get him into that environment for some time.

Secondly, Mark Ramprakash and Justin Langer's departure from Lord's has given him more responsibility.

Unless England suffer injuries, it is unlikely Owais will figure in the Ashes series, although McGrath was taking no chances, but I would like to think, if some senior players are not available, he will make his Test debut in India or New Zealand.

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