“It’s Tongue as in T-U-N-G, not Tongue like T-O-N-G! What is that? TONG?”
Josh Tongue is in his three-year-old son’s playroom, but it isn’t a toddler he is putting to bed. The 28-year-old has heard commentators offer up a few pronunciations of his surname since he made his Test debut in 2023. It seems some of them have got it all, well, a bit Pete Tong.
Tongue has been refreshingly honest, as wells as candid and endearingly grounded, for the past hour of our wide-ranging conversation, but I still tread carefully on our final topic. He’s 6ft 4in, the definition of strapping and can bowl above 90mph after all. Could it perhaps be a case similar to that of “Scones and Sc-own-es?”
“Nah – it’s T-U-N-G,” he says, laughing. Commentators take note for the next time the Nottinghamshire and England fast bowler is in the wickets. When he gets on the park, that is often.
Along with Jacob Bethell’s insouciant maiden Test ton and Joe Root’s albatross-flinging overseas Ashes centuries, Tongue’s wicket-taking was one of the few English straws to clutch at after a disastrous Ashes series. Introduced for the third Test with England already 2-0 down, he finished the campaign with 18 wickets from three matches. On Boxing Day, in Melbourne, he picked up a five-wicket haul in front of a record-breaking 94,199 at the MCG, his family among them.
“That was the stuff dreams are made of,” he says, still with an air of disbelief. “When we were kids, me and my brother would play against each other in the garden and pretend we were playing an overseas Ashes Test.”
England went on to win their first Test on Australian soil since 2011 and Tongue was named player of the match, the first England quick to scoop that accolade in an Australian Test since Dean Headley in 1998.
A few months on, Tongue is looking forward to the next chapter in a career of contrasting highs and lows, of eye-catching wickets and well-documented injuries. He says he is “raring to go” now the domestic cricket season has begun, but sat out Nottinghamshire’s first fixture of their title defence as he works towards getting into prime condition for what could be a seminal summer.
“Being at the [T20] World Cup and in Sri Lanka for the white-ball series before, my bowling loads were fairly low compared with the Ashes,” he says. Tongue was in England’s white-ball squads, but did not play. “So I’m just in the process of getting the loads back up, bowling three or four times a week. I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m back out there.”
Was it a frustration not to play? “When it comes to selection, everyone knows I’m pretty chilled. I don’t really ever have a bee in my bonnet if someone says I’m not playing. I always think just to be in the squad, to be around the sort of experience in red ball and white ball will stand me in good stead.”
Tongue has the laid-back, reflective, even appreciative air of a man who has been through the ringer. The battles with his body have given him plenty of perspective. In 2022, his struggles with thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition where nerves and blood vessels between the neck and shoulder are squashed causing pain and numbness in the arms and fingers, led to him contemplating early retirement in his mid 20s.
“It was just a horrible time,” he says. How close was he to being forced to give up the game for good? “Really close,. We were in conversations with the PCA [Professional Cricketers’ Association] and going through all the insurance forms. It was heavy.”
“The specialist said: ‘Look, you might have to have another operation,’ that would have been my third op in the same area. He was even thinking about taking out my first rib to try to take the pressure off. That would have been it, I think.”
Before that extreme option was reached, salvation came when the same specialist suggested some last-ditch Botox injections in an attempt to relax the muscles and ease the compression. “I was back bowling about two or three weeks later and played for Worcestershire at the back end of that summer. Six months later, I made my Test debut for England,” Tongue says, still with an air of disbelief.
The injuries kept coming though. A ruptured pectoral and torn hamstring meant he missed the entire 2024 season for his new club, Nottinghamshire. “At the end-of-season do I was quite emotional and I went up to Peter Moores [the head coach] and said: ‘I’m really sorry I’ve not played for you yet.’ He nipped that right in the bud. He just said: ‘I don’t want to hear you apologising for being injured ever again. It’s crap, but we’ll get you right.’ He’s such a good man-manager Mooresy.”
I can barely get the next question out before Tongue says the same of Brendon McCullum. “I’m lucky to work under two coaches who make you feel 10 feet tall, make you want to get out there and absolutely smash it. They’ve both given me so much confidence.” That confidence has Tongue wanting to take his Test career to the next level. “My dream is to be England’s opening bowler. That’s where my eyes are at the minute.”
Despite plenty of calls for him to take the new ball during the Ashes, Tongue was used as first change when his skill bowling with a lacquer-less ball was noted. He has even earned himself the nickname “The Mop” on the county circuit for his adeptness at wiping out tailenders but, he has also got the taste for top-order players.
Just ask Steve Smith who Tongue has now pocketed on multiple occasions, including five times in seven first-class innings. How does it feel to have the wood over one of the greatest batters the game has seen? “Well, he’s got plenty of runs against us too [Smith averages in the teens against Tongue] but it is amazing. He’s a player I grew up watching so a few times I have been thinking: ‘Bloody hell, I’ve just got Steve Smith out … again.”
The pair shared a beer at the SCG after the series. “He had a laugh about it,” says Tongue. “Do you know what? I don’t really like talking about cricket too much when I’m not playing.” One imagines it could have been a brief conversation between the pair.
We are meeting a few days after the cricket regulator decided to take no further action against Tongue after he was on the night out in Wellington when Harry Brook was punched by a bouncer. Tongue was not in England’s squad for the ODI against New Zealand the next day, unlike Brook and Bethell, who received caution notices for their infractions.
“Things have happened and I’ve learned from them. I just want to forget about it now and move forwards. All I want to do is play cricket for England and make the fans happy.”
A pivotal summer lies ahead, wickets will be the currency that keeps Tongue’s name on people’s lips and he is not bothered how they pronounce it. “They can call me what they like, the Aussie fans did as you can imagine. As long as I’m on the park and taking wickets, that’s enough for me.”
