The start of the English cricket season coincides with the Indian Premier League. 

I’m not sure how much interest there is here in what has become India’s principal domestic tournament but its impact on the global sport is such that it seizes the attention of journalists and bloggers.

Still the leading authoritative voice on the sport, Wisden announces itself at the same time with its five cricketers of the year. Selection is primarily based on a player’s influence on the previous English season.

I was therefore surprised to see the inclusion of Indian Shikhar Dhawan who scored two hundreds in his five Champions Trophy innings in England. 

It wasn’t so much that I begrudged the exciting opening batter but what does it say about the sport when five ODIs trump the cricketer who plies his trade on the county circuit?

Joe Root was recognised but more for his performances for his country, as was Australian Chris Rogers.

But it is with Rogers though that the County Championship can claim recognition.

Cricket’s traditional narrative pits the hard-working proletarian bowler against the creative aesthetic batter. 

As with many customs, this is an invention. Throughout the sport’s evolution, batters have played cricket as a profession and have had to worry whether the next innings was their last. They have also been expected to get their heads down and trade sweat for their runs.

Rogers fits the classic durable pro who sees the English game not as a means to build up a pension but as a way to develop and enhance his game. 

He sits alongside the likes of Phil Simmonds, Allan Donald and Darren Lehmann as the consummate overseas professional who is both student and teacher of his trade. 

Nine years’ employment in English conditions was a crucial factor in his recall to the Australian team for last year’s Ashes. 

Rogers had played a solitary Test in 2008 and at 35 must have doubted that he would be given another go.

Selected when Mickey Arthur was coach, Rogers’s ascent has been alongside that of new coach Lehmann.

Lehmann is what some might describe as a traditional Australian cricketer. He is blue-collar with a mind set forged in his days on the assembly line at the Holden car factory. 

An uncomplicated coach, he keeps net-sessions light and enjoys a beer at the end of a day’s hard work. 

His team has been described as “reassuringly Australian” — an emphasis on pace, hard-hitting aggressive batsmen and fielding that gets in the face of the opposition. 

Verbal encounters are especially reminiscent of the best Australia teams of the past.

Rogers recently credited Lehmann for bringing a sense of enjoyment back into playing. 

“I grew up a little bit in the old-school days, when it was far more relaxed, you did enjoy yourself,” he told Cricinfo’s Alison Mitchell. 

“I think ‘Boof’ has brought back that old-school mentality a little bit. I remember the first thing he did. 

“We had a meeting and he said it won’t go for more than half an hour and when it did hit half an hour he said, ‘Right, that’s it, we’re all going to the pub’.”

Someone once said that cricket was a simple game made complicated. You only have to look at the array of specialists and reliance on technology to consider how art can be converted to science. 

A less complicated approach to the sport has seen Australia reclaim the number one Test side ranking for the first time in nearly five years. 

Rogers has been fundamental to this improvement — his 830 runs in the 10 Ashes Tests were more than any player on either side.

And he keeps improving.

Set an improbable 472 by Yorkshire, Rogers led from the front with a monumental 241 not out to take Middlesex to a seven-wicket victory last week. 

Only twice in the history of the County Championship has a side successfully chased down more runs.

The match was less encouraging for Middlesex’s Eoin Morgan whose 27 and 33 will inevitably be considered alongside Yorkshire’s Gary Ballance who scored his second successive century. I expect that only one of them will be in the England squad to face Sri Lanka.

Morgan has been considered in the same breath as Kevin Pietersen. His ODI average of 41.6 is bettered by no-one who has played 90 matches for the current England team. 

Yet he is perhaps a victim of the IPL. The last time he last played a match in England in April, Australia were the number one Test side.

It’s debatable about who will have the more rewarding career as a player. 

I envisage that Rogers will move into coaching and will again give more back to the sport from which he earned his living. Will Morgan or Dhawan for that matter?