Plunkett Wary Of Big-Hitting Gayle
Liam Plunkett, the England pacer, believes it won’t be easy for the English bowlers to bowl at Chris Gayle, the big-hitting opener, when they lock horns with Windies in a five-match ODI series starting on Tuesday (September 19).
Gayle set the tone for the visitor with a boundary-strewn 40 in a solitary Twenty20 International at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street on Saturday, a match Windies won by 21 runs.
“I don’t think anyone knows (how to bowl to Gayle), do they?” said Plunkett, who finished with 3 for 27. “He’s such a good player, he just hits the ball out of the park wherever he wants.”
No member of the Windies side that played on Saturday featured during their recent 1-2 Test series loss in England.
But, with the likes of Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Jerome Taylor included in the 15-man squad, Windies will hope for a much better showing in the 50-over format. Windies must win all five matches (or complete a 4-0 victory with a no-result/tie) in this series to directly qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
“It’s good they have their experienced players back, a lot of stars, and that’s what you want to play against,” said Plunkett, 32. “You want to beat the best they can bring over.”
England, which has played an aggressive brand of cricket since its first-round exit at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand, is yet to win a major global ODI trophy.
“In one-dayers, we’re a good team. We haven’t won any silverware obviously but in terms of the last two years with the amount of games and series, we are a confident team,” Plunkett said. “We feel like we should beat them.”
With 28 scalps from 13 ODIs, Plunkett is England’s leading wicket-taker in 50-over cricket this year, and only behind Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan (36 wickets) and Pakistan’s Hasan Ali (31).
Since making his ODI debut in 2005, Plunkett has been in and out of the team before becoming a white-ball regular in the past two years.
“I’m quite comfortable in my own skin with England now,” he said. “It’s good to have that feeling and it would be great to be the No. 1 wicket-taker. It would be great to achieve that but also good to win the series.”