5 England players who had a great first class career but didn’t shine in Test cricket

#5 John Emburey

Emburey played for Middlesex and Northamptonshire in County cricket

In an era which saw the greatest fast bowlers of all time, spin bowlers never really entered the limelight. But, John Emburey, easily one of the most underrated and underutilised bowlers, was a special talent.

Emburey was mostly used defensively, but on his day he would leave the batsmen groping outside off-stump. The tall tweaker had a classical loopy action and generated a huge amount of bounce and away drift. And had a lethal arm ball outswinger that troubled even the best of the batsmen.

The off-spinner made his debut in 1978 against New Zealand at Lord’s. He played 513 first-class games and bagged 1608 wickets but couldn’t replicate his performances in Test cricket. His average in Test cricket was 39, whereas he had a much better average of 26 in first-class cricket.

Format	Matches	Wickets	Average	5s	Best figures
First class	513	1608	26.09	72	8-40
Test	64	147	38.40	6	7-78

Though unconventional, he was a very handy batsman lower down the order. Sans any footwork or backlift he could smash the fast bowlers for boundaries. Interestingly, he holds the record for being the highest England Test run-scorer never to have made a Test century.

He also captained England in two Test matches against West Indies following Mike Gatting’s sacking. But, sadly, he lost both of them and he too was sacked from captaincy. However, many felt that he should have been given a longer run because they believed he had the characteristics of a great leader in him.