James Rew interview: I’m not going to become a Bazballer, I know what my strengths are

As James Rew was growing up, he recalls: “Jos Butler was probably my big idol.” Rew seamlessly followed Buttler’s path from King’s College, Taunton to being Somerset’s wicketkeeper-batsman; he might well eventually follow Buttler into international cricket, too.

Yet, for all the similarities with Buttler’s journey into the professional game, Rew plays in a very different way. He admires a fellow left-handed batsman: “The grittiness of Alastair Cook and the way he goes about his innings – that’s what I like to look at.”

While he turned 20 only in January, Rew’s five Championship centuries last summer invited the question of whether he will be England’s long-term Test wicket-keeper. But if other new generation candidates – Durham’s Ollie Robinson, Surrey’s Jamie Smith and Lancashire’s Phil Salt – bat in a style that is a natural fit with Ben Stokes’s England, Rew prefers delayed gratification. His Championship strike rate last year was a round 50: perfectly quick by normal standards, yet a level below England’s average strike rate of 76 since Brendon McCullum became coach.

“I don’t really have that ability yet – I’d like to be able to do that,” Rew reflects. “I feel like the best way for me to help the team and the way for me to get the most runs is to just kind of dig in and really work hard through my first 30, 40 balls.”

While Stokes said last year that there wouldn’t be a place for a young Cook in his Test side, Rew has no plans to abandon his method. “If it gives Somerset chances to win matches, I probably won’t go away from that. My goal is to help Somerset win a first Championship title so in that regard, I just want to keep doing what is going to help the team the most. And that’s probably me playing the way I do.

“I can always evolve my game, I’m still young. But at the moment it’s just about keeping it the same and trying to do as well as I can for the team.”

Last summer, Rew did very well indeed: only two men in Division One scored more County Championship runs than his 1,086 runs at 57.15. The bulk of these were made while keeping wicket too: an extraordinary return for a player who had previously played only half a Championship season.

“It happened so quickly. I just remember at the start of the season getting a few low scores in the first few games and then suddenly halfway through the season, I had a few hundreds.”

To Rew, it emphasises what he considers among his most important traits: remaining equable, whatever he does on the pitch. He laughs when asked whether he is a bat-thrower.

“I’m very chilled. I always walk off and just take my pads off. I don’t really get angry – just try and stay very level. Don’t let the highs get you too high and the lows get you too down.

“I always feel like it’s about how well I start and not getting carried away because I’m always a slow starter. Whether or not I’ve got runs before, I’ll always find it hard going out into the middle and starting my innings.”

A winter tour with England Lions to India confirmed Rew’s status among English cricket’s coming men. While Rew’s returns were modest in the three first-class games – playing as a specialist batsman, he averaged 21.8 – he believes that he will be a better player after observing India’s approach.

“The way they go about playing spin and how simple they keep it – they all seem to score so quickly but without trying. They don’t go about it like Bazball, as we’d say, but they always seem to be striking nearly 100 by respecting the good ball and they’re just so good that they can put away that bad ball so quickly.

“That really gave me a bit of confidence that I can keep playing the way I do: staying patient and just making sure you put every slightly bad ball away to the boundary.”

Selection for the Lions also allowed Rew to work with Andrew Flintoff, who was a mentor for the squad.

“He hates looking at technical stuff. He’s all about how can you score runs, whether it be in an attacking way like he used to bat or anyone’s personal style. But how can you just go about taking down the opposition bowlers and scoring runs?

“He kept it so clear and made everything so simple. I think you can see why he was so successful. He didn’t really let anything clutter his brain and didn’t really think about anything too technical. He just thought how he was going to score runs against whoever he’s playing against.”

In a very different way, so has Rew. Adept at hockey and squash at school, he benefited from the seamless relationship between King’s College and Somerset: “I used to leave lessons at five to four and be in the academy training at four o’clock.”

His qualities have long been admired in England’s pathway. After being picked aged 17 for a county select XI in 2021, Rew realised that he could have a career in the game. The following year, he had a fine U-19 World Cup, and hit 95 in the defeat by India in the final.

That innings came as a specialist batsman at No 4. Yet while batting is the more-advanced aspect of Rew’s game, he remains committed to the journey behind the stumps that began when, aged 11, no one wanted to keep in a club game.

“Mum bought me a pair of Kookaburra gloves from Sports Direct or something. I tried it out and never really looked back,” Rew recalls. “I really enjoyed getting stuck in and trying to take all the chances.” His development as a keeper should be accelerated by Shoaib Bashir and Jack Leach bowling in tandem for Somerset.

This summer, Rew expects to remain as keeper-batsman at No 6, but has ambitions to move up the order. “Even if I batted at four I’d probably be happy to remain keeping.” He also hopes that Somerset, the defending champions, can find a slot for him in their T20 Blast side.

“My T20 cricket isn’t where I’d like it to be at this moment in time. But I will work on that and try and become as good as I can in white-ball cricket, which would definitely help my red ball.”

For all the common refrain that keeping can damage a player’s output with the bat, Rew has a different view. “Keeping, you’re in the game, you see exactly what’s going on. I think it probably does help my batting being able to see what the wicket’s doing,” he says. “I see myself as a batsman but then I’d say I train just as much as a keeper would. There’s definitely plenty of time to do both.” And still plenty of time, Rew is convinced, for batsmen who approach first-class cricket at a more conventional pace.