Asa Tribe is ready to develop into England’s subsequent opener – this is the reason: How 21-year-old wowed Aussies and ECB insiders on Lions tour, the key to his ‘easy recreation’ and the one method each Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett can maintain Glamorgan star out of aspect

Test openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett will face competition from Glamorgan’s Jersey international Asa Tribe, as England look to move on from their disastrous tour of Australia.

Crawley averaged just 27 in the Ashes and Duckett 20, while the 21-year-old Tribe enjoyed a successful winter with England Lions. And that has turned the seven rounds of early-season championship matches before the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s in June into an extended trial.

The selectors are reluctant to drop either of the openers who have formed a strong bond since joining forces for the tour of Pakistan in late 2022, with Crawley in particular regarded as a selfless exponent of head coach Brendon McCullum’s approach.

But his average of 31 is the lowest in Test history for any top-order batsman with at least 60 caps, while Duckett’s failure to pass 42 in any of his 10 innings in Australia has also left him with a target on his back.

If either player struggles for his county in April and May – Crawley for Kent, Duckett for Nottinghamshire – the selectors are poised to hand a first cap to Tribe, who stood out during the Lions’ own tour Down Under, making an unbeaten 129 from No 5 during an innings defeat by Australia A at Brisbane in December.

Several good judges, Australians among them, believed Tribe – whose strokeplay combines elegance and power – was the only Lions player who looked as if he would be unfazed by Test cricket, while Tribe himself has outlined his philosophy in simple terms: ‘I tend to watch the ball rather than the bowler.’

Asa Tribe enjoyed a successful winter with England Lions, making an unbeaten 129 from No 5 during an innings defeat by Australia A at Brisbane in December

The 21-year-old is in line to become England’s next opening batsman if either Zak Crawley or Ben Duckett struggle with their counties in the opening weeks of the County Championship

So far, it has stood him in good stead. He averaged 45 last season as an opener to help Glamorgan win promotion in the County Championship for the first time in over 20 years, and showed off his versatility by scoring 401 runs at 80 in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.

During one especially purple patch in August and September, he made 122 and 131 – both unbeaten – in successive 50-over innings against Worcestershire and Leicestershire, followed by 175 for Jersey against Papua New Guinea, 53 not out against Qatar, then 206 in a Championship match at Northampton.

One England insider said: ‘He’s got a simple game. He loves batting. He’s one of those who works hard, with a lot of balls thrown at him. But he would be amused by that, because he thinks hitting balls isn’t work.’

The bespectacled Tribe, who last week was signed for £70,000 by Welsh Fire at the Hundred auction, is ambitious but modest, expressing surprise when he was picked up by Paarl Royals in the SA20, where Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara is director of cricket.

And he showed what he was capable of by making 51 off 34 balls in an opening stand of 100 with South African international Lhuan-dre Pretorius against a high-class MI Cape Town attack including Trent Boult, Kagiso Rabada and Rashid Khan.

Tribe then enjoyed a good white-ball series against Pakistan’s A team in the Gulf, only for war in the Middle East to prematurely end the Lions’ trip. The selectors, though, had long since taken note.

Now, assuming he starts the summer well with Glamorgan, he faces the prospect of forgoing his career with Jersey – a wrench for a cricketer who has won 31 white-ball caps for his native island, and played alongside his older brother Zak. Last summer, Jersey missed out on qualification for the recent T20 World Cup to Italy only on net run-rate.

Tribe averaged 45 last season as an opener to help Glamorgan win promotion in the County Championship for the first time in over 20 years

One England insider said of Tribe: ‘He’s got a simple game. He loves batting. He’s one of those who works hard’

‘I’ve wrestled with it a little bit, in the sense that Jersey’s my home country,’ he recently told ESPN Cricinfo. ‘I’m Jersey born-and-bred and it’d be so good to take Jersey to a World Cup. I’m in a little bit of a battle. 

‘If I play for England before that, then brilliant, but that obviously takes away the fact that I’d be able to help Jersey get to a World Cup.’

The decision may be taken out of his hands. With the England management keen to repair the bridge between the Test side and the county game, Tribe could be no more than a couple of hundreds away from walking out at Lord’s on June 4. 

Whether he will be saying ‘good luck, Ben’ or ‘good luck, Zak’ is another matter altogether.