We hope to have Rory Burns back in action for us in the coming weeks, which is wonderful news. After what happened to him and Moises Henriques at Arundel this month, it is fantastic to see both on the mend.
The collision they had in the field during our Twenty20 game against Sussex on June 14 meant they both required hospital treatment and led to the match being abandoned.
I’m happy to be able to report that Rory is no longer suffering any ill effects from the incident. He has had the stitches removed from his head and facial injuries and I hope to see him back on a cricket field sooner rather than later.
Moises came off slightly worse from the collision and is now recovering from a broken jaw but he is in good spirits. He has a typically Australian attitude to it. His approach is: “I want to be back playing as soon as possible, so let’s get it fixed so I can get back on the park.”
With Rory, we won’t have to push him to come back. He is a great character who is desperate to help the team, so we might need to rein him in at times because he is that desperate to play.
Moises and Rory are just two of the key senior players we have been missing in recent weeks, so it was extremely satisfying to get the win at Derbyshire that keeps us in the race for promotion. I have to say that the young fellows are performing brilliantly.
I took so much heart from it as a captain because I can see the progress these guys are making. They are going about things in the right way — attacking with the bat when they have the opportunity and always looking to take wickets with the ball rather than just sitting in. That has always been the Surrey way and I was delighted to see so many of them put it into practice.
Do victories mean more as captain? I guess they give you a bit of an extra smile, just as defeats are harder to take. And with the schedule we have — sometimes it seems there is barely 12 hours’ break between games — there is little risk of taking your eye off the ball.
Gareth Batty is an ambassador for Octopus Investments, proud sponsor of Surrey and Birmingham T20 teams. Join the conversation @OctopusT20 or cricket.octopusinvestments.com to compare player stats, view one-on-one records and discover what it takes to be a #gamechanger
