Ashes 2017/18: England opener Mark Stoneman arrives in his adopted city of Sydney with a point to prove

Stoneman has certainly not looked out of his depth in international cricket, but nor has he produced the score that would cement his place in the team. He needs to perform in Sydney

Mark Stoneman is a Geordie by birth and temperament and yet at home in Sydney (Getty)

For the itinerant international cricketer, eternally shuttling from continent to continent, airport lounge to airport lounge, contract to contract, the idea of home is an increasingly nebulous concept. Many players these days have not one home but several, and so it is with England opener Mark Stoneman: Newcastle by birth and temperament, London by residence, and yet whenever he arrives in this city, there is a part of him that instantly feels at peace.

Sydney has been home to Stoneman for six summers. Over the last decade, he played club cricket for St George, Campbelltown-Camden and Bankstown. He was in the crowd at the SCG during the 2006-07 Ashes, standing among the Barmy Army. He met his wife, Serene, here. And so insofar as any Englishman playing an away Ashes series can feel at home, it will be Stoneman, when he walks out to open the batting in the fifth Test on Thursday.

“It was always going to be the icing of the tour, on a personal note,” he said, sitting in a windowless room underneath the SCG. “I’ve got a lot of friends and family here, and it’s something I’m very much looking forward to.”

Sydney was the making of Stoneman in many ways. He first arrived in his early 20s, a raw, nuggety left-handed opener trying to make his way in county cricket. It was on the city’s hard, bouncy wickets that he honed his immaculate back-foot game, where he toughened up as a character. “It was a massive on a personal and cricketing front,” he remembered. “The two go hand in hand, as you mature and learn a bit more about yourself.”

And yet as Stoneman returns to his adopted city, he does so with a point to prove. He has certainly not looked out of his depth in international cricket, but nor has he produced the score that would cement his place in the team, that would genuinely announce himself at this level. He has got starts on this tour without ever quite going on. None of his three Test half-centuries have progressed beyond 56. It is why for all the resilience he has shown, he still rates this tour as “pretty frustrating”.

What has he learned in his brief experience of Test cricket? “The unrelenting intensity at which the game’s played,” he replied. “Things have to be done for a lot longer. Small moments make a huge impact. Look at the catch that Peter Handscomb took in Perth [off Dawid Malan when England were 368-4].

“We were in a position where we thought we could put a score on the board that Australia wouldn’t get close to. All of a sudden, that catch, which you don’t realise the importance of at the time, and then Australia came out and made 600, and we’re losing the game.”

At least the draw in Melbourne, arresting England’s seven-match run of away defeats, has averted the possibility of a whitewash, although Stoneman hesitated to describe it as a momentum shift. “If we’d won, then maybe there would be more questions asked of Australia,” Stoneman admitted, “but it’s given us a lot of confidence that the things we’ve tried to put in place have eventually come through. But ultimately we want to win a game on this tour.”

Stoneman has been forced to learn quickly (Getty)

A good Sydney strip, with the grass on the wicket due to be trimmed ahead of the game, offers Stoneman a superb chance to make that elusive big score. “Everybody knows the key to Test cricket is getting big scores on the board,” he said, “and if you’re only making 30s then you’re giving the opposition a chance to make inroads. On the flip side, if you’re out there for seven or eight hours, the attack will wilt a little bit.”

One thing is for certain: when you consider that Stoneman was standing in the crowd at the SCG 11 years ago, he could scarcely have been more satisfied with how things have turned out since. “The Barmy Army were in full voice, and Brett Lee was steaming in with the ball,” he remembered. “I was thinking how good it would be to be out there. I dreamed about it. It’s been a long and winding road in between. But looking back, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”