Two months ago, Liam Livingstone was dropped from England’s one-day international squad against Australia. But on Thursday he will complete a remarkable transformation when he captains his country for the first time, in their first one-day international in West Indies.
“I’m just really excited,” Livingstone said. “It’s obviously something you dream of as a kid. I take it back to when I was six, seven, eight years old playing in the garden, you’d always pretend you were England captain.”
When he was dropped for England’s ODI squad against Australia in September, Livingstone may have feared for his long-term one-day future: aged 31, he had largely been a peripheral player in the format. Yet a combination of a stellar T20 series against Australia – including a match-winning 87 from 47 balls in Cardiff – and Jos Buttler’s injury earned him an immediate recall. Livingstone’s form continued in the ODI series, hitting four sixes in one Mitchell Starc over when he hit 62 not out at Lord’s.
Now, his status as a senior player, combined with Buttler’s injury and the absence of Harry Brook have combined to make him one of England’s more unlikely captains. To Livingstone, such recognition is reward for his strength of character: in his journey from Barrow; in coping with 18 months marred by ankle and knee injuries from 2022-24; and finally in responding to being dropped from the ODI team.
“One thing I really pride myself on is resilience,” he said. “The resilience I showed in the summer is something I’ll look back on as being really proud of when I finish my career.
“Something I’ve always responded well to is setbacks in my career. I’ve probably had a few of them growing up. Coming from Barrow, things haven’t been easy. Even travelling three times a week when I was 14, 15, 16.
“Those situations have set me up for things like the summer where you do get left out. It’s obviously disappointing but I could have quite easily sulked, not done anything about it and ended up not here.
Livingstone admitted that he was “in a pretty dark place” after grappling with injuries.
“The biggest thing is I know I play my best cricket when I’m enjoying myself and I’ve got a smile on my face. Those 18 months, I really wasn’t enjoying myself. The niggles that you’re carrying – every day when you wake up and something’s sore, it becomes pretty tiring.”
‘I said yes to being captain straight away’
A phone call from Marcus Trescothick, England’s interim white-ball coach until Brendon McCullum assumes the role in January, broke the news to Livingstone of his promotion.
“I said yes straight away. It’s a cool moment; I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career the whole way through and probably none more so than the last couple of weeks.
“As much as it’s a proud moment for me, it’s probably more my family. There’s probably not many England captains that come from Barrow-in-Furness so it’s a proud moment for my family and the town where I come from. I’m sure I’ll get a lot of support from the people up in Cumbria over the next week, a few are coming out to watch the cricket so I’m looking forward to the next three games.”
Livingstone’s dad will come and support him in Barbados. “He’s pretty excited about being able to watch that one-dayer and he got pretty excited when I told him the news.”
In Antigua, Livingstone will bat at number five to give himself more chance to influence the game. He has only previously batted in the top five twice in 30 ODIs but relished batting higher up the order in the T20 series against Australia.
“I felt like I did really well in the summer, even just batting one or two spots higher, it gives you a bit more responsibility, a bit more time. It’s something I’ve wanted for a while.”
In 2018, aged only 24, Livingstone was Lancashire club captain, but stood down after a difficult year.
“It didn’t go all to plan but I guess that’s the thing that matures you pretty quickly and I guess it opens your eyes to everything that goes on in cricket. I’m really thankful for that opportunity and also pretty thankful that it wasn’t plain sailing for me. Those challenges really set you up for things further down the line.
“The off-field stuff is what I found challenging previously and that’s pretty much taken care of here. So the actually part of captaincy I really enjoyed was the on-field stuff and that’s what I have to do the next week and I’m pretty excited about.”
‘I want the lads to show off their skills’
Livingstone later captained Lancashire in the T20 Blast in 2023. In T20 cricket he averages 11 runs more when he is captain, suggesting that the responsibility helps his game.
While Livingstone has not spoken to McCullum about captaincy, he says that his style of leadership will fit within the McCullum mould.
“The way I play my cricket is pretty suited to the way we want to play. I don’t think there’s any thought process that needs to go into that. It’s a young, exciting group of lads that have got a hell of a lot of talent. It’s probably up to me to create an environment where the lads can show off their skills.”
Livingstone hopes that his captaincy against West Indies will not just lead to victory in the series, but also make England’s ODI selection more challenging when they can pick from a full strength squad for next February’s Champions Trophy.
“If somebody comes in and shows something we haven’t already got, they can leapfrog people very quickly,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to have a look at different people on this tour and some young lads are going to get some good opportunities.”
Over a year since he was first picked in an England squad, pace bowler John Turner will finally make his international debut in the Caribbean – either in the first match or in the coming weeks.
England have not named an official vice-captain for the ODIs, but Phil Salt and Sam Curran will both provide Livingstone with on-field support and could step in if he is unavailable for any game. Jos Buttler will return from injury to lead England in the subsequent five-match T20 series.
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