Brief profile of Robert Key by Matthew Reed

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Player:

RWT Key

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DateLine: 13th February 2006

 

With chubby, sometimes rosy cheeks, Rob Key’s Just William physicalities belie his powers of concentration, temperamental cool and high class batting. The heavy handed, resplendently thwacked shots he reels off also seem to hark back to an earlier age. For a while his reputation burgeoned along with his waistline did (a situation where something clearly had to give), and a word in his ear from Alec Stewart and a winter under Rod Marsh at the Academy helped bring his weight down. He opened in his debut series against India in 2002, and he played some nice knocks without scoring heavily. He looked good at times on that winter’s Ashes tour, although the fact that he was dismissed by the occasional arm turnings of both Damien Martyn and Steve Waugh suggested that his resolution against the formidable front line Australian attack was underpinned by a susceptibility to a sucker punch. Cheap dismissals against Zimbabwe the following summer also supported the feeling that Key was liable to a lapse in concentration, and he lost his place to Kent colleague Ed Smith. The next summer was something of a cricketing epiphany for him though, as he made a magisterial 221 against the West Indies at Lords. Unsurprisingly England won that match, although arguably more crucial was his undefeated 93 at Manchester, with England chasing an awkward 231 and with Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss both having gone cheaply. This was made despite the predictable comments about his girth (he is still a little on the rotund side even at his cricketing fighting weight) chirruping out from the nearby fielders. However, Key gave way to Mark Butcher in South Africa until the Surrey man was injured, although for the Ashes series he found Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen ahead of him in the queue. He would have been a replacement for Michael Vaughan in the Pakistan tour of late 2005 but for the fact that Key himself had undergone shoulder surgery after the English domestic season. There is no doubt that he can be a huge asset to the England team, as he has proved that pressure only seems to improve his quality of play. However, his shot selection has been found wanting on occasion, and in Test cricket being dismissed in superficially less pressured situations can soon compromise the team’s situation. He has still to prove that he can be dominant in the calm water context of a settled place in the team and a comfortable match situation if he is to see off the next wave of England squadmen like Alistair Cook, Ed Joyce and Owais Shah.

 

(February 2006)

(Article: Copyright © 2006 Matthew Reed)