Yeah, the first time I saw him bowl was in his opening spell in
this game. His eventual figures were merely adaquete, but in his opening spell he was quite sensational. Swung the ball as much as I've ever seen anyone swing it. All right, it was an evening, but it was a sunny July evening which offered no more assistance than a sunny July afternoon would.
I thought "jeesh, this chap can bowl" - but he was already 30 by that time, so I knew that was basically that as far as anything else was concerned. Not long after I noticed he hardly played much OD cricket, then eventually I read that RMJ piece, which explained a lot.
Along with the fact that Lewry, as I say, has often bowled at his best on those not-extraordinarily-common occasions when England's seam attack has been going well in the home Tests. And has had a few injuries.
He's not a superman by any stretch - he's had his ineffective, and downright expensive, seasons as well as his brilliant ones. But all career, clearly, he's been the sort of bowler who when on-song, which has certainly not been irregular, you walk out to bat hoping rather than expecting.