Left-arm seamer David Payne made his England debut in the final ODI against the Netherlands at Amstelveen and very nearly made a dream start to his international career.
The 31-year-old was handed the new ball alongside David Willey and almost took his first wicket in just his third over with England 2-0 up in the series. Bowling to Tom Cooper, Payne fired in a short ball which the Dutch batter top-edged towards short midwicket.
Liam Livingstone looked set to take what should have been a simple catch, but he appeared to be blinded by the sun and pulled out of the attempt. The ball ultimately landed safe and Cooper survived, with Payne denied his first England wicket.
It would have seen Cooper dismissed for a duck and the veteran batter went on to make 33, before ironically being caught by Livingstone off the bowling of Brydon Carse. And when asked about Livingstone's drop while fielding on the boundary, Payne told talkSPORT: "You couldn't write it, could you?"
Payne was first named in an England squad back in 2020 after a Covid outbreak forced them to pick an entirely new squad overnight for a three-match ODI series against Pakistan. Although he did not play in that series, Payne remained in the selectors thoughts and was picked again for England's T20I series against the West Indies in January.
And the Gloucestershire star is also keen to be part of England's Test team. Speaking to the PA news agency earlier this year, he said: "I've still got huge aspirations to play Test cricket for England.
"You never know what can happen because sometimes if guys can do well in white-ball with England they have a look at you. This call-up just feels like it's opened up countless opportunities: both for white-ball cricket and maybe for red-ball.
"In my personal opinion I definitely feel not having a left-armer in the squad is something England are missing at the moment. They might see me as that point of difference and might give me that edge to get into a Test squad.
"Everyone talks about a bowler being 28 and being at their peak, I feel like since 28 I keep getting better. I still feel like I've got more to give, I definitely feel like I've not reached the very best of what I can do."
