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There are times when Josh Tongue talks about the situation he finds himself in with genuine incredulity, as if he has not so much earned a place in England’s dressing-room as snuck in while nobody was looking and hid inside a laundry basket.
“I said that to myself when I first got picked in ’23: ‘Just being here, around this group of people, in the Ashes squad, is just an amazing … what’s the word? Accomplishment?’” he says. “Like, it’s amazing. Being a part of this England squad at the minute is amazing and I couldn’t wish for anything else, really. And now to be a part of an Ashes squad, going to Australia’s own backyard and playing against them … I just can’t wait for the next couple of months.”
Tongue can expect the excitement to be sustained for a bit longer than that. When theEngland and Wales Cricket Board announced this year’s batch of central contracts at the start of the month most of the two-year deals, reserved for the nation’s most integral players, went to core members of the white-ball squad, many of them also in the first-choice Test side.
There were a few exceptions: Gus Atkinson, an occasional limited-overs international but established as a key member of the red-ball team, and Ben Stokes, the Test captain, were two. And then, finally, an injury-prone 27-year-old who has played six Tests in two and a half years and never had a sniff in any other format. It seems someone, somewhere, has a lot of faith in Josh Tongue.
You get the sense that the player himself does not require much by way of affirmation. He carries his confidence, as he does most things, quietly, but when conversation turns to subjects that might be sources of insecurity – the frailty of his own body, say, or the moment earlier this year when, in the most high-profile situation possible, he appeared to completely lose his ability to determine the direction in which the ball left his hand – there seems to be none. After all, why interpret sustaining injuries as proof of weakness when you can see your recovery from them as demonstrations of strength?
“I think with my first proper injury in my shoulder, that thoracic outlet syndrome, getting through that first big injury has helped me a lot,” he says. “I was out for over 18 months and I was close to retiring, speaking to loads of people. I didn’t know what was going to happen to my career, I was looking for other things to do if worst comes to worst. Obviously every injury is horrible, no one wants to get injured, but I feel like that first one prepped me well for my second and third one.”
Tongue admits that there were, briefly, some doubts when he was first called into the Test side, for the one-off match against Ireland in 2023, just the ninth first-class game he had played after returning from his shoulder injury.
“I was thinking: ‘Am I good enough to play for England?’” he says. “But I just knew that I had to be diligent with my prep, trust my processes, do what I’ve done to get myself in this position, don’t change who I am. Because that’s not me as a person. I’m very introverted and I just want to do what I do best really, and not change who I am.”
There is a conflict here, between the introvert and the entertainer, an inherently quiet soul whose job involves performing for thousands. At the Oval this summer there was a moment when any faults in his composure might have widened into serious fissures, a nine-ball, 12-run over in the Test against India that contained two humiliatingly wild deliveries, each disappearing down the leg side for five wides. But Tongue did not falter, and soon produced stunning, unplayable deliveries to dismiss Sai Sudharsan and Ravindra Jadeja.
“Growing up as a kid, I’ve always been introverted,” he says. “But I feel like when I step out on to that pitch, things just change. I feel like if I open the game up, that brings a different side of me. It’s different on the pitch, off the pitch. Because the main reason I play cricket is to enjoy playing cricket, to have a smile on my face. It’s very rare I haven’t got a smile on my face, even if it isn’t going well, which has happened this year as well.
“Especially in that India game at the Oval, those wides down the leg side. I was standing at the top of my mark in that game and I was just like, look around you, you’re playing in front of thousands of people. Enjoy the moment, you never know how long it’s going to last.
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“I went to the basics: bowl my best ball, which is hitting the pitch hard and getting something out of it. I just went back to that and got those two quick wickets. I feel like sometimes I am a bit of an over-thinker. And with the amount of people watching you as well, you want to impress them so I feel like sometimes I put a bit too much pressure on myself. But also I know when to just be nice and chilled, and I’m a chilled guy. Just enjoy every single minute of it.”
It must help that, in Brendon McCullum, England have a coach whose guiding philosophy is the removal of pressure, and encouraging his teams to play without fear. “Definitely,” Tongue says. “In that spell [against India] I bowled really good balls, play-and-misses, nicking people off, and he always reminds me about that sort of stuff, to make me feel good within myself. He’s very good at that.
“I still remember the first chat he had with everyone, introducing me to the group at Lord’s before the Ireland Test. You just want to lock in and listen to him, no distractions. You listen to every single word he says, and he pumps your tyres up as well. That’s what makes you feel so much better, knowing he’s behind you, knowing you’re good enough to be here and sort of just change matches on their head. I feel like I’ve done that well so far.”
With shoulder, pectoral and hamstring injuries now behind him, Tongue goes into the Ashes as part of a miraculously injury-free seam-bowling group that includes Jofra Archer (“Amazing”), Mark Wood (“Unbelievable”), Atkinson, Brydon Carse and Matt Potts, as well as Stokes. Most of them were in New Zealand during the recent white-ball series, building their workloads before moving to Perth. “We thrive off each other. We all want everyone to do well,” Tongue says. “Obviously you want your name on the team sheet, but we all celebrate everyone’s successes.”
For now, though, Tongue is quietly celebrating his own. “I’ve always wanted to play in an away Ashes. I think it’s everyone’s dream to play in the Ashes,” he says. “It’s a massive thing for English cricket. As a young kid, my idol was Fred Flintoff. Watching those moments, they were just amazing. And just to be involved, even if I don’t play one game, just to be involved in the Ashes is incredible.”
