Joe Denly interview: I’m gutted to be left out of England squads but I’ve learnt not to let it get me down

For Joe Denly, it has not been the ­simplest summer, but he is not the type to complain.

When England last played a Test at the Ageas Bowl, Denly was their No3. But scores of 18 and 29 meant his average dipped just below 30 and, when Joe Root returned from paternity leave, Denly was left out for Zak Crawley, who at 22 is 12 years younger than his Kent team-mate.

Denly then swapped bubbles to join Eoin Morgan’s ODI squad for the series against Ireland. He was due to line up in the middle order but, the day before the opener, he injured his back. Another Kent colleague, Sam Billings, took his place, and played two match-winning innings as England won the series.

“Yeah, there’s been some blows,” Denly tells Standard Sport. “These things happen. I am a positive guy who tries not to let things get me down, having done that in the past and learnt from that. It’s just the way things go unfortunately.”

Although Denly is able to manage challenges with calmness and maturity, he was still hurt.

“Absolutely gutted, disappointed,” he says of being left out of the Test side. “But it was a fair decision. I had opportunities to get big scores and looking back that’s the most frustrating thing. I haven’t been able to capitalise and get three or four big hundreds and really make that No3 spot my own. I always felt comfortable, never out of my depth. It’s frustration with myself.

“When Zak was selected ahead of me, I was delighted for him. I sent him a message wishing him the best. He looked in fantastic form in the nets and in the Test, looked at ease. There were no grudges there. I hope he has a long Test career. Likewise with Bilbo, who has had some tough luck with injury, I was delighted to see him do so well.”

To really understand Denly’s Test career requires looking beyond the headline stats.

His ability to soak up balls – a stated aim for Root’s England after years of frivolous batting – meant he almost always got a start. In 28 innings, Denly was out in single figures just four times, and he was at the crease for under an hour on just 10 occasions.

That allowed the middle order longer with their feet up, and he played his part in some memorable victories. The most notable was at Headingley, when his four-hour 50 was, he says, “a very small part in the Ben Stokes Show”.

The trouble was, he did not often make those starts count. In 18 of his 28 innings, he was out between 10 and 38. Strangely this was not the Denly those who have watched much of him know. He showed across his Test career that he had shots, both a front and back-foot game, but chose not to use them.

“As I played more games and those big scores weren’t coming, I may have gone into survival mode as opposed to expressing myself and playing the way I know I can,” he says. “Looking back I could have been a bit more free-flowing and taken it to the bowlers a bit more. I probably got caught up in batting time, not scoring runs, and that built up a bit too much pressure on myself. Before you know it, you’re back in the shed.

“I batted in some tricky situations, getting through difficult spells against quality attacks. Those are the chances you have to cash in on. I’d like to think I did a good job in terms of allowing players to come in and play with a bit of freedom in the middle order. But as top order batters we pride ourselves on big scores and that’s disappointing.”

Denly missed Kent’s first two Bob Willis Trophy games with injury, but is set to return against Middlesex on Saturday. He has an eye on a spot in the T20 series against Pakistan, but hopes late summer runs will keep him in the Test conversation, too.

“There are a lot of decent young batsmen around the country, so it will be tough to get back in,” he says.

“But Ed [Smith], Spoons [Chris Silverwood] and Rooty said the door wasn’t shut. I want to be a part of it. Even if that’s as a squad player, I will take that. But it’s about scoring runs for Kent. I was left out of the World Cup squad and scored runs to get selected in the Ashes. It’s a similar scenario now, I’m looking forward to it.

“I’m very proud of being part of that England side for 18 months. Hopefully, I can make a few more memories yet.”

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