We knew he could strike the ball 100m relentlessly. What we hadn’t seen was the prodding before the power
Cameron Ponsonby03-Nov-2024Liam Livingstone asked for more responsibility. Got it. And delivered.Six weeks ago, Livingstone got a call saying he was dropped. The conversation was 30 seconds long, but preceded a chat with managing director Rob Key where cards were laid on the table. Livingstone understood why he had been left out. His returns over the past two years, by his own admission, weren’t good enough.But something rankled. His one complaint was that he felt that time that he hadn’t been given the chance to dictate games. He had been the bit-part player England called when they wanted him, but never when they needed him. In 30 ODIs, he had batted above No. 6 twice, and bowled his full allocation only twice as well.Related
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One Jos Buttler calf setback later, though, and he got another call saying they wanted him back for the Australia series, and they needed him back for the West Indies series. As captain.”It’s a bit like a relationship,” Livingstone had joked before the first ODI against West Indies.Across his last five ODI innings, Livingstone averages 133.50 with a strike rate of 145. A dramatic surge in form that he dates back to a single ball he faced in the Hundred against Luke Wood. Facing a hat-trick ball, Livingstone told himself to relax and just react to whatever comes. The ball is bowled into his ribs, and he tucks it away for one. Watching it back, it is entirely unremarkable.”Jesus,” Livingstone remembers recalling to himself at the time. “I think I’m back here.”Livingstone further said after the second ODI against West Indies, “It’s really weird because it’s one ball in the middle of the summer,” when he smashed an unbeaten 124 off just 85 balls in a successful chase of 329. “But I spent two years trying so hard to work it all out.”Livingstone is one of few players on this tour playing with real jeopardy. Interim head coach Marcus Trescothick had said after the first ODI that the message being framed to the group was to enjoy their “free-hit” opportunity with a mountain of players to come back in. But Livingstone isn’t in that boat. His ultimatum with Key had been agreed, and these matches were his opportunity “to not only say what I thought, but [also] for me to show people I mean what I say”.When he arrived at the crease in the second ODI, England needed another 222 runs in 29.5 overs. A required run rate of 7.50 that climbed all the way to ten an over the moment the 39th over came to an end. England required exactly 100 runs off the final 60 balls. They did it in 45.Of Livingstone’s nine sixes, eight came in the final 25 balls of his innings. His second 50 arrived in just 17 deliveries. He hit consecutive sixes on three occasions, and took two overs for north of 20.Combining the clubspeed of Byson DeChambeau with the biceps of Mike Tyson, Livingstone peppered all sides of the ground. Gudakesh Motie was bludgeoned out to the leg side, Jayden Seales was slapped over extra cover, and Shamar Joseph was lucky to survive when a straight drive flew back past his face.”I see my ability as being able to hit more than a couple of sixes”•Getty ImagesIt wasn’t a one-man effort, with all of Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell and Sam Curran contributing with half-centuries of their own, but it was a one-man show. After the 35th over, every England boundary was off the bat of Livingstone.Counterintuitively, despite the fireworks that got England over the line. The first 50 of his runs arguably proved the point Livingstone was trying to make more than the final 74.We knew he could strike the ball 100m relentlessly. He hit the ball over the football stand at Headingley, which was the type of shot that you only hear about from the 1800s when Sir.What’sHisChops apparently cleared the pavilion at Lord’s using a toothpick. That is to say, when people are lying. But Livingstone actually did it. We saw it.What we hadn’t seen was the prodding that came before the power. His 50 off 60 balls took the game deep, and put it on his shoulders. He had struck only three boundaries. England’s team selection, swapping Jamie Overton for Saqib Mahmood, meant that the tail was long, and Adil Rashid was at No. 8, just two wickets away.”People see me as this guy who can go in and smack a few sixes in a T20 innings,” Livingstone said. “But I see my ability as being able to hit more than a couple of sixes – being able to do things like I’ve done today.”Liam Livingstone reaches a maiden ODI century•Getty ImagesIt was a remarkable innings that more than saved what had otherwise threatened to be an ordinary day for the new captain. For the second time in history, England used nine bowlers across an ODI innings, with the only time before coming in 1987 when all of Bill Athey, Allan Lamb and Chris Broad bowled the only over of their ODI careers in a dead run chase.It encapsulated the other end of Livingstone’s desperation to do well on this tour. Muddled thinking in the guise of proactiveness, that resulted in Jofra Archer having an over left in the tank when Will Jacks, Dan Mousley and Bethell had sent down seven between them.”No,” Livingstone said. “It wasn’t the plan.”But where clarity was absent in the field, it was present in abundance with the bat. Livingstone admitted himself that despite his showing, “I don’t think I’m ever going to bat [at No.] 5 for England when we’ve got a full squad”.But regardless of the tangible long-term results of his performance, the intangible can matter just as much. He had proved to himself, and others, that he was capable of something he had always believed he could do, but until Saturday never had.”It’s amazing,” he concluded. “The last time I was here, I lost my grandad. I’m looking forward to speaking to some family back home. He’ll be looking down pretty proud.”
