Jonathan Trott today became the eighteenth batsman for England—even if he did kiss the three lions on doing so, it is still a little difficult to call him an ‘Englishman’—to score a hundred on Test debut. He is the fourth in his own team, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook and Matt Prior having had the same exciting, unforgettable, hard-to-live-up-to experience.
At the press conference tonight, Trott also suggested he would be a snug fit with the culture:
It’s quite hard to describe now to be honest. I’ll probably have to sit down and think about it and reflect on it … Hopefully there will be a successful result for us and it will be even more special … Obviously the selectors showed huge faith in me and I’m pleased to be able to reward them.
A ‘to be honest’, a ‘sit down and think about it’, a ‘hopefully’ and an ‘obviously’: why, the man’s a prodigy, already a master of the most mind-deadening maxims in cricket’s lexicon. Fortunately it was his bat that had earlier done the talking, and most eloquently. If he continues exuding such aplomb at the crease, he is welcome to as many cliches as he likes afterwards.