This time last year, David Payne had a difficult decision to make. A persistent ankle niggle had dogged him through 2023, requiring two rounds of surgery. When Luke Wright, the England men's selector, phoned ahead of the Ireland ODIs that preceded last year's 50-over World Cup, Payne had to admit he wasn't fit enough. "That was one of those really difficult ones, to have to turn down that call."
But the big decision revolved around whether or not to move on to a white-ball contract with Gloucestershire. The demands of playing first-class cricket, in which he remains a proven performer, had contributed to Payne's problems with injury. With a goal of playing for England again at the front of his thinking, he chose to sign a three-year extension and put red-ball cricket to one side (although he has not yet retired from the format).
The result, as Payne prepares to spearhead Gloucestershire's tilt at T20 Finals Day, has been "pretty much the perfect summer so far". Payne has enjoyed the most-prolific T20 season of his career and is currently the Blast's joint-leading wicket-taker with 29, having moved level with Danny Briggs after taking a four-wicket haul against Birmingham Bears in last week's quarter-final.
"It probably brought a few more nerves to the first group game [of the season], thinking I'm almost like a one-format player for Gloucestershire now, because of the Hundred - so what if I don't perform in this one format?" Payne tells ESPNcricinfo. "What good am I to the county? But now, the plus sides, and the reasons I'd done it, were mainly for my body and prolonging the career in that sense. I'd had some trouble with my ankle and actually that was the big difference, that I went into that first group game really fresh. I hadn't played six or seven four-day games. My body was always already really sore, or had a niggle or something, and I was actually completely fresh for the probably the first time ever. And it just felt like it made a huge difference physically and mentally, and allowed me to perform at my best."
Payne mapped out the "best-case scenario" for his summer as "having a good Blast and a good Hundred, then hopefully that leading to getting back in England squads." Although the last of those has yet to happen, he is confident that he has put himself in the best position, at 33, to add to his sole ODI appearance against Netherlands in 2022.
Notwithstanding England's apparent transition to a new generation, one factor that may keep Payne on the radar is his effectiveness in the powerplay - an area which has been a weakness with the T20I side for some time. In this year's Blast, Payne has taken 20 of his 29 wickets while fielding restrictions were on; the next-highest is Ollie Robinson of Sussex (Gloucestershire's semi-final opponents) with 14, followed by Olly Stone and Timm van der Gugten on 11.
While this has long been part of Payne's skillset - since 2020 in the Blast, he leads the way with 45 powerplay wickets at 16.88 - he said that an increasingly attacking mindset from batters meant bowling teams placed greater importance on striking with the new ball. As a case in point, he highlighted the quarter-final win over Birmingham defending a low total, in which Gloucestershire's captain, Jack Taylor, kept Payne on for a third over at the top and was rewarded with the key wicket of Moeen Ali.
"I think if you can move the ball at the top, the way the batters are trying to play now, and how hard they come, it kind of flips the mindset"
"Coming into this year, I wanted to be a real strong powerplay bowler, and set the tone for Gloucester and take lots of wickets, swing the new ball. I watched guys like 'Frankie' [Dan] Worrall at Surrey come on to the white-ball scene, and showing the white ball does swing up top. And actually, I think if you can move the ball at the top, the way the batters are trying to play now, and how hard they come, it kind of flips the mindset: if the ball is moving, it's going to be very challenging for them to play these big shots and come at you.
"I know I've done it in previous years, but I feel like this is probably the best I've bowled with that new ball. I think before, I've probably done a bit of swing, but then it's been a little bit more slower balls and skill and different things. But this year, it's probably the first year in long time where I've almost just looked to swing it for two to three overs. So the pleasing thing has then been how we've managed to attack, and I've been able to bowl three overs in the powerplay quite a lot, and be really aggressive and just keep looking to take wickets.
"Friday was a perfect example of that, being able to press the gamble button again and say, 'You know what? We really need the wicket of Moeen Ali.' And actually, for Jack to have the confidence to go, 'Yep, Payney, you go a third one.' We're not worried about the death, because we've got Matty Taylor's bowling very well, Josh Shaw bowling very well. And go 'that's your super strength at the top', and if we can get Moeen Ali out now, that puts in a really good position."
Payne says he is aware of "how strong the pool of players" available to England is, with the squad currently taking on Australia featuring three left-armers, in Reece Topley, Sam Curran and Josh Hull - although the selection of Hull, almost solely on the basis of his 6ft 7in height and ability to push the speed gun up towards 90mph (his career tally of 24 T20 wickets is fewer than Payne has taken this season) is a more delicate subject.
"It is tricky, because England are obviously doing things in a certain way now, and it's probably been very different to what we've experienced over years gone by. Previously, you played the county game and I certainly grew up thinking it's all on your stats - and if you go well and you take wickets, then that's your way into the international set-up. They're obviously looking at the different route and, yeah, picking a bit more on attributes. And there's nothing to say that won't necessarily work."
The old-fashioned route of catching the selector's eye via county finals is not closed, of course - and Payne will be hoping that success with Gloucestershire at Edgbaston this weekend, when he could eclipse Alfonso Thomas' longstanding English domestic T20 record of 33 wickets in a season, provides Wright with a timely reminder.
This will be Gloucestershire's first Finals Day appearance since 2020, although Payne says that experience "didn't really feel very real" given the absence of a crowd due to Covid restrictions and the fact that the whole event was up against the October weather - for first time in the competition's history, the reserve day was required, with Gloucestershire subsequently losing a soggy, 11-over thrash against Surrey.
This year's Blast has been an ordeal of a different kind, with the competition starting May and ending in September. Gloucestershire began the season by winning one of their first five but sneaked out of the South Group - which has provided all four semi-finalists for the second year running - on net run-rate, thanks to Essex losing their final match against seventh-placed Hampshire. "You need that in sport sometimes, a little bit luck to go your way, and we certainly had a little bit of that this year," Payne says.
Then came the victory away to North Group winners, Birmingham, which should ensure that no one takes them lightly when they return to Edgbaston. "We're always labelled the underdogs, whatever happens, and I think that plays well for us, because it always feels like we enjoy proving people wrong and proving that we're better than people think we are."
While the closest Gloucestershire have come to lifting the T20 trophy is a runners-up finish in 2007, Payne was part of the team that beat Surrey - who will play Saturday's other semi-final against defending champions, Somerset - in the 2015 Royal London Cup final at Lord's, and believes they can upset the odds again.
"It generally feels like no one really gives us a chance. It feels like going into Saturday, if they're saying, who's going to be your tip for winning it, more often than not no one's really going to mention us. And that tends to play in our favour. I think it makes us feel like we can just go out there and play with freedom. We've got nothing to lose. If no one's expecting us to win, then all we can do is cause an upset. It feels like that's what happened in 2015 and hopefully that'll be the same on Saturday."