Dan Lawrence’s Hundred Club Wait Shows Why Test Cricket Still Worships Three Figures
Lawrence’s latest near-miss
Dan Lawrence’s anguished reaction at Edgbaston captured the enduring power of the century in Test cricket. Having reached 65 against Pakistan, the England batter attempted to guide Mohammad Imran past point, only to chop an otherwise innocuous delivery on to his stumps. His chance to reach a maiden Test hundred disappeared in an instant.
Lawrence has played 17 Tests since his England debut in 2021, moving through almost every position in the batting order. He has appeared at No 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3, as well as enduring a short-lived experiment as an opener. The instability has not stopped him producing eye-catching cricket, but his repeated starts without a hundred have become the defining statistic of his Test career.
A record of promise without the landmark
The Essex batter has repeatedly shown that he possesses the game to score heavily. He made 73 on debut in Galle, was unbeaten on 81 against New Zealand at Edgbaston and came close to three figures in Barbados before falling late in the day. Before returning to England’s Test side for the Pakistan series, he had struck five Division One County Championship centuries, including a double hundred against Hampshire.
Against Pakistan, Lawrence passed fifty in each Test and was named player of the match at Edgbaston after contributing with the bat, taking two wickets and producing a superb diving catch. Yet with England in control and 160 runs ahead, his dismissal at 65 felt particularly costly on a personal level. A century would have strengthened his position in a crowded England batting group.
“The personal milestone achieved within a team game is one of cricket’s distinctive charms,” Andy Zaltzman has written of the century, describing the move from two figures to three as “cricket’s signature individual triumph.”
Does the century matter too much?
The Pakistan series produced no hundreds from either team, the first three-match-or-longer series in England without a century since 1888. That statistic raises the question of whether cricket places excessive importance on a single numerical milestone.
Ben Duckett is England’s only Test centurion of the summer, but his form declined sharply after his hundred against New Zealand at Trent Bridge. Harry Brook, meanwhile, was still England’s most consistent batter over the relevant period despite approaching 17 months without a Test century and averaging 53.
Those contradictions underline the century’s unusual status. It is not always the best measure of current form or value, but it remains the benchmark by which batters are judged, from club cricket to the international game. As the article puts it, when it comes to centuries, a player has either made one or has not.
Crane’s milestone, Lawrence’s unlikely role
Mason Crane understands the emotional pull of the landmark. After more than a decade as a professional cricketer, the Glamorgan leg-spinner made his first-class hundred against Surrey this summer and followed it with a second century against the same opponents the following week.
“It’s so cool to be able to say you’ve got one,” Crane said. “That extra column … it’s special. Everyone still puts plenty of weight on it.”
The twist was that Lawrence bowled the deliveries from which Crane reached 99 on both occasions. Crane had known Lawrence for years, but never expected to face him while approaching a century—let alone twice within weeks. For Lawrence, the coincidence was likely a painful reminder of the milestone that continues to elude him.