Kent captain Sam Billings has very recently turned down the opportunity to go on the England tour to Bangladesh as he stated that he has been carrying drinks for eight years and the best thing for him was to play cricket which he is doing in the Pakistani Super League.

Billings now has played in all three formats for England and has never disappointed his country. He has played on the big stage numerous times for England including World Cups and Ashes tours as well as big moments in domestic cricket.

The wicketkeeper-batsman has also played in big games at the domestic level as well such as the Indian Premier League as well as captaining T20 Blast and Royal London One Day Cup finals which should mean that mentally he is in the right state for an established international career and this posed with his undoubted talent should mean Billings is ready-made for international cricket.

Billings is a very accomplished batter, he averages 41.3 in List A cricket with a strike rate of 103 as well as averaging over 30 in first-class cricket and over 20 in domestic T20s, these stats make it very hard to understand why the Kent captain is yet to break into any England team despite the struggles of the ODI side in 2015 and the constant collapses of England’s test team in the Joe Root era really does beg the question as to why his career never took off.

Billings is a good player of both pace and spin as well as being a 360-degree player who can play the ball into all areas of the field. This undoubted quality makes the case of Billings so interesting and where does the blame lie: with Billings himself or England?

One thing with Billings is that he never really specialized in any format, during his early career in particular Billings was always showing quality and promise but was never amongst Englands top 5 or 6 batters in any format.

Billings should have looked to specialize in a particular format far earlier than he did, when he was around 26 years old he made the decision that his future was in T20 cricket, he went around the world entering franchise competitions and has impressed in the Big Bash, IPL and most recently PSL.

However, his prime years could have been better spent. Billings specialized in stroke making and getting ones and twos to keep the score ticking and this style does not suit T20 cricket.

Whilst Billings is capable of hitting big shots and finishing once set, it does take a good 30 balls for him to set and he only has a career strike rate of 130 and with players like Jos Butler, Johnny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, and Ben Stokes all battling for places in England’s middle order that strike rate means Billings can’t get into that side.

By focusing on franchise cricket so much, Billings missed out on many County Championship and One Day Cup games which are formats where Billings could have played for England.

Billings has played 256 games of T20 cricket and just 104 List-A games and 82 first-class appearances, this clear focus on T20 cricket has greatly impacted his chances to play for England and has allowed players like James Vince, Phil Salt, and Moeen Ali to leapfrog him in the pecking order for England’s ODI squad and Ben Foakes and Harry Brook’s immense form under Brendon McCullum means the door to the test side is all but shut.

As well as this these decisions to run drinks for England would have harmed his chances of playing for England as it meant he was unable to go on a red-hot run of form like Ollie Pope or Matt Potts last summer to get more public backing and make him harder to ignore.

Have England failed Billings?

Whilst some of the blame should be placed on Billings a lot of the responsibility should be on England and how they have managed the wicket-keeper.

Whilst Billings should have declined some England tours in favour of playing regularly at domestic level he shouldn’t have been called up if he had no chance of playing especially when he was younger.

This consequently slowed down his development and meant that he couldn’t fulfil his potential.

England also never gave Billings a continuous run in any side, he has had a seven-year international career and has only played 68 games with only three being in the test arena whereas Johny Bairstow who started his career in 2011 has played 250 games for England including 89 test matches.

Whilst Billings may not have reached Bairstow’s standard it does show the differences in chances given as Bairstow has been in and out of both the T20 and test sides his whole career but England persevered with him and are now reaping the rewards after he made the test team of the year and is one of England’s key players.

Of late Bairstow has also played very little county cricket. This lack of opportunity for Billings has been very strange particularly in the ODI set up as the Englishman has been averaging almost 48 with a strike rate of almost 100, yet finds himself somewhat away from contention for the World Cup squad.

After an impressive winter against Australia in the ODIs it is very difficult to understand why James Vince is starting games for England in Bangladesh and Billings isn’t.

With Phil Salt also struggling of late as well as Liam Livingstone struggling in the summer against both India and South Africa, Ben Stokes’ retirement and Harry Brook being very inexperienced in this format, it does beg the question as to why Billings isn’t being given a prolonged run of games in ODI cricket.

He also performed very well in the ODIs in 2020 against Australia getting a big 100 in a run chase as well as getting some runs against Ireland in the series before.

That it is very strange as to why he wasn’t given more opportunities to get in the side and be a regular. Obviously, England did have one of the best batting line ups in the world and probably the hardest one to break into of all time with Jason Roy, Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes and current captain Jos Butler, however Billings’ stats should have meant he was next in the pecking order and ready for when one of those players got injured or retired.

If that were to happen Billings would be ready to come in now and meant England wouldn’t be wondering who to go with in that batting line up, however as it is at the moment England don’t know their strongest team and that is not a good place to be so close to a World Cup.

Lady Luck’s involvement

Sam Billings has also been very unlucky and constant injuries aren’t the sole reason he hasn’t had a run in the side, however his unreliability did allow other players a chance as well as meaning he played less county cricket reducing his push for the side as he was unable to go on a run of form we’re currently seeing from players like Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow.

He also missed out on the 2019 World Cup due to a broken arm again reducing his chances to impress on the big stage.

Overall I believe most of the blame should have been placed on England due to not letting him play consistently however Billings should have played less franchise cricket and should have played more 50 over and first class cricket for Kent.