Whenever a new English fast bowling talent bursts onto the scene, eyes naturally flick towards the speed gun for a glimpse of that magic 90, yet Mitchell Stanley maintains a policy of looking away.
‘I've had conversations with bowling coaches when I have been with England Lions where I have just said, "If you're going to use a pocket radar or anything with speeds, I don't really want to see it, especially during a training session",’ Lancashire’s Stanley tells Daily Mail Sport.
‘Because sometimes it can take away what you're trying to do and actually you end up just focusing on your speed, and trying to go faster and faster actually means you end up bowling slower and slower.
‘Obviously, the adrenaline when you're actually playing a game means your speed will go up naturally, so I tend to just worry more about what I'm doing with the ball and the outcome.’ For the record, the 6ft 5in Stanley broke the 90mph barrier on multiple occasions at the start of the Ashes tour last winter when for three weeks England’s next best players shadowed Ben Stokes’ Test team.
According to England’s all-time leading wicket taker Jimmy Anderson, his county captain, Stanley’s ‘easy pace’ is one of ‘many attributes that will hold him in good stead for the next level’.
The others including ‘a lovely, rhythmical action and ability to swing the ball.’ Anderson realised he had a bowler on his hands with the potential to follow him onto the international scene last September when in only his second County Championship appearance, Stanley claimed match figures of 11 for 180 against Kent at Canterbury.
Following a catalogue of injury spanning a decade, he finally had confidence in his body to get through four-day matches and did so with spectacular results, something for which the science and medicine team at Emirates Old Trafford should take a lot of credit.
Annual lumbar stress fractures had held him back until that point, but in Anderson - who spent a huge chunk of the 2006 season in a back brace - he has an empathetic presence in his corner.
Now 25, Stanley has benefitted from Lancashire’s patience and understanding.
He first had tongues wagging around county cricket’s coaching community when he burst onto the scene with Worcestershire in 2022, earning a Hundred contract with Manchester Originals after hurrying England openers Jos Buttler and Phil Salt in a Vitality Blast match at New Road.
‘I had no idea how quickly I bowled.
I always thought I was low 80s, and then there was that game against Lancashire.
After we’d finished the game, the analyst came up to me and said:....
