England cricket team is ready to face one of their busiest cricket summers in this new season. They will participate in the upcoming 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup as a host side and then they will play the home Ashes series against Australia. However, English cricketer Jonny Bairstow has given more importance to win the World Cup trophy than the Ashes trophy.
England and Wales are going to host the 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup from 30th May to 14th July. A total of ten teams will participate in this tournament, including the host side and the no.1-ranked ODI side England. The three-time World Cup runners-up England hasn’t won a Cricket World Cup yet. Many experts believe that it is the best chance for England to win the Cricket World Cup.
Meanwhile, after completion of their Cricket World Cup journey, England will play the home Ashes series against Australia from 1st August to 16th September. While Australia will begin this tournament as the defending trophy holders, England has won all their home Ashes series since 2005.
I am going (to pick the) World Cup – Jonny Bairstow
Jonny Bairstow has recently claimed that the World Cup glory is more crucial for them than the Ashes glory. He also added that they had worked hard for a long time to stand in the present dominating situation in ODI cricket.
Jonny Bairstow recently told Sky Sports, “I am going (to pick the) World Cup because it’s been so long since we’ve had an opportunity to win one.
“I think that the amount of work that has gone into this group of players over the last couple of years, building and building, I firmly believe we’ve put an amount of effort in that gives us the best chance.
“Guys have worked day in, day out, taking their games to places that they weren’t at 18 months, two years ago. That’s from the vision Morgs (England captain Eoin Morgan) has had and the way we are playing our one-day cricket.”
You go to the IPL to develop your skills – Jonny Bairstow
Jonny Bairstow recently experienced his first IPL season. In IPL 2019, he played for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) who bought him for INR 2.2 crore from the 2019 IPL Auction. The right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman finished the tournament as the second most run-scorer for his team. As an opening batsman, he scored 445 runs in 10 innings (average 55.62 and strike-rate 157.24) in IPL 2019. He hit one century and two half-centuries in his first IPL season.
Bairstow has credited IPL to develop the skills. He also took the example of Jos Buttler‘s evolution since IPL 2018.
Bairstow said about the IPL, “You go to the IPL to develop your skills, to put them up against the best in the world. We saw Jos (Buttler) coming back into the Test side last summer after a brilliant IPL. The competition over there can only improve your skills. I genuinely think I’m still learning and improving.”
At present, England is busy to play the five-match home ODI series against Pakistan. After this series, they will play two pre-World Cup warm-up matches before beginning their World Cup journey. In the upcoming Cricket World Cup, England will play the opening match (30th May) against South Africa at The Oval (London).