Being back-up to the best wicketkeeper in the world must be a tricky business. When you do get a chance to take the gloves, you know that it will be only for a short while, that the No 1 will be back soon.
Amy Jones is in exactly that situation. With the three one-day internationals against India completed, Sarah Taylor will fly home as she continues to manage her anxiety problems, which means Jones will keep in the Twenty20 matches, then for another six fixtures when the team move on to Sri Lanka later this month. One way to deal with it would be to just accept your position, know that usurping Taylor is virtually impossible. That is not the way Jones is approaching it.
“In my head it’s not an obvious choice [for Taylor to keep] and I think that’s the way it has to be,” she says. “We’re both competing for the same spot and she’s obviously an unbelievable keeper, and I think her being so good is what’s progressed my keeping. It’s just healthy competition and it’s been like that for my whole career.
“It’s not something I’ve shied away from. I’ve always known that if I’m going to be the first-choice keeper I’ve got to be good. Now that I’ve been at a good standard for a few years I can push her to improve and we can see how good we can get.”
Jones has not just been running drinks and pining for the gloves over the past couple of weeks. She is established at the top of the order, opening (despite enduring a sticky tour so far) against India but some keeper-batters see taking the gloves as a badge of honour, that their status is somehow diminished if they do not do both jobs.
That is not the case for Jones, although the 25-year-old “can see how you could think like that”, and these days she does not think keeping has a particularly significant impact on her batting.
“When I was younger I used to really think if I wasn’t keeping there would be more pressure on the batting,” she says, emphasising that even if she is not behind the stumps, she can still contribute significantly. “I think now how the game has evolved with fielding, you can really impact on the game that way. I still have two strings to my bow, even if I’m not keeping.”
These upcoming games will be the first T20 internationals England have played since the desperately disappointing end to the T20 World Cup in the West Indies, where they reached the final but were easily swept aside by Australia. Jones’s 92-run partnership with Nat Sciver won the semi-final against India but in the big one only Danni Wyatt and Heather Knight reached double figures. Australia cantered home with 29 balls to spare.
“We watched it and reviewed our batting the other week, which was horrible,” Jones says. “There’s lots of learning there and it will only make us stronger.”
On a personal level the tournament was another example of Jones having a clear run batting at the top of the order and keeping wicket. “I’ve been to a lot of World Cups running drinks and playing the odd game, so it was brilliant to know I had a run and had a regular role. I loved it.
“In an ideal world everyone would play at their best without knowing whether they were playing in the next game or not but psychologically going into a tournament knowing you’re the first-choice keeper and batting at the top of the order – it eases the pressure. Knowing you have the backing of the coach and the people around you, it does just allow you to play with freedom.”
There are some big challenges ahead: these games against a strong India, the Ashes in the summer, then another T20 World Cup next year. And for the next month or so, Jones has the chance to prove she is not just a stand-in.