Fred Titmus - England: Picked... and Dropped

England: Picked... and Dropped

A fine display for MCC against the South Africans, where he took 8–43 in the second innings, brought Titmus his England debut for the second Test at Lord's, but he took only one wicket (that of Hugh Tayfield) and failed twice with the bat; and if anything he had a worse time in the third Test at Old Trafford, making 0 and 19 and taking 0–51. He was dropped, and though he went on a non-Test tour to Pakistan with MCC that winter, full England selection was always unlikely with Jim Laker in his prime.

From 1956 to 1962 inclusive, Titmus achieved the double in every year except 1958, but despite the end of Laker's England career in 1959, a place in the Test team still eluded him as the selectors looked elsewhere. 1961 was his best year with the bat, as he scored 1,703 runs at a fine average of 37.02, including one hundred and no less than 14 half-centuries; he passed 50 more than a hundred times in the course of his first-class career.