Throwback Toby Can Be A Hit In Oz

CHRIS Tremlett is backing Toby Roland-Jones to shine Down Under after almost certainly sealing himself a seat on the plane following his heroics against South Africa.

- Richard Edwards

The Middlesex man took eight wickets in his debut Test at the Oval, including 5-57 in his first innings as an England bowler.

Always at the batsman, RolandJones brought some old-fashioned attributes to the England bowling line-up with his unrelenting accuracy and ability to nip the ball off the seam proving too much for Faf du Plessis’s men.

In many ways, the 29-year-old represented a throwback to another era and although Australian pitches are likely to offer far more pace and bounce than those back home, Tremlett, the hero of England 2010/11 Ashes triumph, believes RolandJones possesses the qualities to be a success on whatever surfaces he finds himself bowling on.

“He was banging out a length, hitting the seam and letting the ball do the talking,” he tells The Cricket Paper. “He reminded me a lot of (Vernon) Philander. He’s not a bowler who bowls with great pace, around 80 miles an hour. If there’s anything in the surface, which there was at the Oval for the bowlers, and you can seam the ball like Toby can, then he can be very, very dangerous.