Always in reserve: Liam Dawson’s moment beckons at the T20 World Cup after ten years ‘on call’ for England

Liam Dawson has been present for England’s finest white-ball moments over the past decade. He was an uncapped inclusion in the 2016 World T20 touring party when Eoin Morgan’s fresh team was dismissed at the end by Carlos Brathwaite’s ‘remember the name’ sixes. He was there as a team member on that golden day at Lord’s in 2019 and as a traveling reserve when England won the T20 World Cup in Australia three years later.

But remarkably, the 35-year-old is still waiting to make his debut at a global tournament. It has been an international career spent on-call, limited to 33 appearances across all formats, his left-arm spin and handy batting skills to be used in an emergency.

The coming weeks will be different; Dawson’s drought is sure to break when England begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Nepal on February 8. He has taken 12 wickets at 7.25 since becoming Adil Rashid’s spin partner in the T20 team in June and conditions in India will require his presence.

The warm-up also goes smoothly. In the current series against Sri Lanka in Colombo – which marks his return to the ODI team after more than three years away – Dawson has conceded four boundaries in 20 overs and taken a couple of wickets.

“On these pitches you just simplify it as a bowler,” he said. “Just try to land the ball in a certain area and let the pitch do the work.”

It is a compelling story, in which the supporting act finally gets his chance now that his career is coming to an end. But Dawson, at least when he faced the media on Monday, remained wary when asked about the prospect of a first World Cup appearance. It was “great” to be back in the England set-up and that it would be a “really cool opportunity if you were selected to play”.

Asked if he had considered the possibility of getting a Test recall this year, he said: “It’s not something I’ve thought about too much. I have to concentrate on the World Cup first, domestic cricket in England, see how that goes and then see where we end up.”

After playing in the Old Trafford Test against India last summer, did he expect to go to the Ashes, a tour he ultimately had to miss? “I played that one Test match and sometimes you don’t have control over the selection but I didn’t really think about that. It was fun to play [Test cricket] again.”

But surely he could tell us something about his off-Broadway work? Dawson has shone year after year in the shires, his return to international cricket last year preceded by 103 wickets in the County Championship for Hampshire in the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He simply highlighted the useful pitches at Southampton.

“Those few years we had a number of wickets that we tried to turn,” he said. “I know I’m accurate enough to exploit those conditions sometimes. That was the main reason I took more wickets than before in my career.”

“In previous years at Southampton we played on more sea-friendly wickets. It wasn’t anything I did differently, it was just that the conditions suited me a little better those two years.”

Full of answers all roughly in the same area, he was quite modest if the reality is such: he has rightly earned his place in this England XI, not only through his championship numbers, but those in the Blast, Hundred and SA20.

Before the World Cup, he will play a key role on Tuesday when England take on Sri Lanka in the decisive third ODI. The visitors have had a dreadful run in this format, with six defeats in the past seven series, but their 11-match losing run was ended with a five-wicket win on Saturday. Surely another ragged delivery awaits, Dawson was ready for 10 overs of his usual.