Ashes 2013-14: Was Jonathan Trott even fit to play the First Test?

When Jonathan Trott took on Mitchell Johnson in Brisbane there was a case for the referee stopping the contest. On the face of it, the two gladiators should have been evenly matched.

Both are former ICC World Cricketers of the Year. Trott, in 2011, followed Johnson two years earlier, with one Sachin Tendulkar in between, and – whatever the subjective nature of this sort of award – you do not receive it without being seriously accomplished and winning the approval of your peers. But it was a mismatch.

Johnson was all over Trott. The bowler was propelling bouncer after savage bouncer at more than 90mph and the batsman was stepping across his stumps, forlornly flapping bat at ball.

It ended on both occasions in inevitable dismissal. At the time it seemed like a small tragedy was unfolding and that Trott was fighting for his international career. That view was confirmed on Monday when Trott’s chronic stress-related condition was publicly revealed.

Rather than be England’s bulwark at No 3 in the team’s next four matches in an Ashes campaign that is under serious threat of derailment, he has gone home to be with his family. As Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, said: “It’s absolutely the best thing for him to do.”

Most of those who heard the official announcement first hand in the team hotel at Brisbane and have come to know Trott a little in the last few years, were surprised. Trott is one of the team’s most ferocious sledgers and with a vastly competitive nature once he steps out on to the field. He has scored nine Test hundreds, three of them in Ashes series.

Perhaps we should not have been so bemused. Off the field, Trott is usually a gentle, if determined soul, with a brooding nature. He looks a worrier and sometimes in unguarded moments he can be spotted looking perplexed.

What remained difficult to grasp for those listening on Monday was why Trott was playing for England in such a highly charged Test match. Trott, it is now known, has been struggling all tour with a condition he has suffered from for years.

Andy Flower, the team coach, has known about it all along.

The squad rightly have a flotilla of (presumably) highly-qualified medical advisers who are paid to look after the welfare and needs of the players.

Test cricket is not for the faint-hearted. Series between England and Australia are particularly hard fought and the match at The Gabba last week, following so hard on the heels of the Ashes in England, has been attended by a particular intensity. To face any fast bowler is a trial of courage, skill and resolve. Most humans, most cricketers, could not do it.

Facing Johnson in this mood requires something extra. Johnson had disturbed Trott in the one-day series in England in the summer. Sometimes in cricket a particular bowler can dominate, almost humiliate, a particular batsman, for no logical reason.

The decision was made that Trott was up to it. Within minutes it became evident that he was not. His first ball of the series was from Ryan Harris. It was a bouncer and Trott rapidly had to move his head out of the way.

The first he received from Johnson was short and hit him on the glove. The second was short which he managed to turn for three, the third was a bouncer against which he had to take evasive action.

He was trying anxiously, urgently, determinedly to move across his crease inside the line of the ball. He was scratching at his crease between balls. The sixth ball from Johnson did for him, another bumper perhaps unluckily feathered down the leg side. But the stroke was desperate.

This was all before the events of Saturday. What Trott must have been going through as he went out then, knowing there were a maximum 11.2 overs left in the day, can now only be guessed at. On reflection, it seems to have been no place for a man suffering from stress and Johnson devoured him again.

The England management was at pains to emphasise yesterday that unsavoury comments made by Australia’s opening batsman David Warner about Trott’s time at the crease (“pretty poor and pretty weak”) was in no way related to his condition or any deterioration in it.

But the manner in which Johnson is bowling at present demands the highest levels of fitness, physical and mental. It is not too big a stretch to surmise that the punishment Johnson inflicted on Trott’s batting psyche could only cause him further torment.

One peculiarity of the conflict is that Johnson may well know something of what Trott is now going through. By his own admission, Johnson has been deeply affected in the past by events on the field and he has fallen apart before our eyes.

Trott may or may not return. It would seem doubtful. Two other England players have suffered profoundly enough from stress for it to affect their careers. Marcus Trescothick came back briefly after leaving a tour of India in early 2006 but did not play internationally again after being forced to leave the Ashes tour later that year.

Mike Yardy had to leave the World Cup in 2011 and later retired from international cricket.

Both those players still have successful and enjoyable county careers. But the fact that their international time ended suggests that whatever the specific reason there is a link between the sheer intensity of the game at the top level – the contest itself, the being away from family, the doubts that all players feel when it is not going well – and the illness.

Morris said stress-related conditions were a challenge in all walks of modern life, not just cricket. England cared for its players and had an outstanding medical team. “It’s something that we take very seriously, there’s nothing more important than the health and wellbeing of our players,” he said.

The feeling was still hard to dispel as Trott was on his long flight to the sanctity of home that they acted a match too late.