Surrey County Cricket Club secured their third consecutive County Championship with one game to spare last weekend.
They are the first county to win three championships in a row since Yorkshire achieved the feat in the 1960s.
However, they suffered yet another Finals Day loss earlier this month when they fell to a six-wicket defeat to Somerset in the T20 Blast.
The Brown Caps have not won a limited-overs trophy since 2003 and fans expect them to win trophies across all formats of the game.
Surrey are not short of star players in their limited-overs squad.
Tom Curran and particularly Chris Jordan have featured in England’s recent white-ball successes and Laurie Evans has starred in overseas T20 leagues.
However, none of them stepped up against Somerset on Finals Day.
T20 skipper Jordan conceded 40 runs without taking a wicket and neither Curran nor Evans added quick runs with the bat.
The result was a routine win for Somerset and another year without a white-ball trophy for Surrey.
Given their recent red-ball dominance, should they be worried about this, or will first-class cricket always be the number one priority?
Cricket journalist Nick Friend, who reports on both the Blast and the One-Day Cup, believes that part of Surrey’s woes are down to bad luck.
Friend said: “I don’t think they’ve necessarily underperformed in the Blast – once you’re at Finals Day, it is a bit of a lottery in some respects.
“Last year, they were hamstrung by losing Sunil Narine to Major League Cricket on Finals Day and this time, they were without Will Jacks, Reece Topley and Sam Curran to England’s T20I series against Australia.
“Of course, they weren’t the only ones impacted by that series and Surrey are also better resourced than anyone to cope with those inconveniences.”
Friend also noted that their red-ball squad was far less disturbed and less impacted by players having international commitments.
Counties with more settled T20 squads, like title-winning Gloucestershire, were able to retain most of their squad for Finals Day.
Aaron Viles, of the County Cricket Podcast, was keen to highlight that Surrey’s problem could be down to an inability to adapt to away pitches.
Viles said: “This Edgbaston surface was a lot slower in comparison to ones that we have seen earlier this season.
“Even in Finals Days gone by, it was quite a tacky, grippy surface for spin bowlers so it lost quite a lot of pace quite early on.
“They were almost guinea pigs on that wicket but even then aside from Dom Sibley and some late-order salvos, it was quite a disappointing performance.
“It’s the same old story season in, season out.
“They dominate the South Group and make it through.
“As long as they reach a home quarter-final, they are fine because I think at the Oval they are almost impenetrable.”
The problems can also be traced to a lack of cohesion within the Surrey white-ball squad.
Given the talents at Surrey’s disposal, they opted to fill their squad with big names, rather than prioritising squad chemistry.
Viles said: “Surrey, especially in T20 cricket, have all the makings of a top side but they almost have an embarrassment of riches.
“In international cricket, because it is so refined, it feels like teams have more well-defined niches, but in the T20 Blast it doesn’t really feel like that with Surrey.
“The problem is all of their archetypes are very similar.
“Sam Curran is that kind of player, goes out there and tries to whack it from ball one, so too with Tom Curran and Jason Roy.
“The anchor players, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley and Rory Burns are not really T20 specialists.
“When you have all of those resources, you go for the big names and the marquee talent who might not necessarily be the best fit.”
However, Viles does agree with Friend that it is only a matter of time for Surrey.
He believes that the squad can learn from other successful limited-overs sides to boost their chances of tasting success.
Viles said: “From one to 11, every single one of their players has a well-defined role and at the moment, Surrey have that in the Championship but they don’t have it in the T20 Blast.
“They can definitely learn that from England.
“That [2019] World Cup team, you knew exactly what they were going to do from one to 11.
“They had a methodology, it was tried and tested and they won as a result.”
Nevertheless, Surrey will enter 2025 as favourites to win across all three formats.
Whether fans expect more from the T20 squad, there is no denying that they have one strongest domestic red-ball sides for generations.
Featured image credit: SurreyCricket1845 via Wikimedia Commons
