Kirk Edwards gearing up for England challenge
West Indian batsman, Kirk Edwards is preparing to get his England tour off to a strong start, when he and the rest of the national team play a warm up three-day match against the Sussex Sharks today.
Edwards, who is currently the vice-captain of the team, stated that the match against Sussex would be extremely important in getting the team prepared for the sort of conditions they may face when playing against England later this month.
“Wherever you play, it is always a test of your skills, different places present different challenges. It is all about coming and adjusting to the conditions, and being mentally tough out there and being able to handle whatever the opposition sends down at you,” he said.
The West Indies had their first full training session yesterday in rather gloomy conditions, after arriving in the country earlier this week.
Edwards, noted that he was planning to keep his batting simple, and not get caught up in the moment or do anything he regretted.
“Looking at England play cricket over the last few years, they have built themselves into the No.1 team in the World, I give credit to them for this. But whatever the case may be, whoever you play against, as a batsman you have to play every ball on its merit and not worry too much about the opposition, so my focus is getting myself into good positions and playing the cricket ball,” he said.
“Batting is kind of a reactive thing. You have your batting plan, but you have to react to what the guy at the other end delivers. I don’t get caught up with a lot of the stuff that’s going on around me. I focus on what I have to do and I approach things in my way. This has a lot to do with what the team want at that point in time…I try to get it and if you don’t have control of your mind, I am of less value to my team,” he added.
Bimal Mirwani
*Bimal also writes for his own blog ‘Batting with Bimal’
