England are ready to start their upcoming T20I series against the hosts New Zealand. English cricketer Jonny Bairstow feels that it is their beginning of the journey towards the next T20 World Cup.
England are currently touring in New Zealand for the international cricket matches. They will begin the international campaign of this tour with the five-match T20I series, starting from 1st November 2019.
The running calendar year (2019) is very special for England cricket team as they won their first-ever Cricket World Cup Trophy. England, the hosts, won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 after beating New Zealand in the final of the tournament (won on the boundary countback rule).
England are again ready to face New Zealand and this time in the T20I format. In the post-CWC 2019, it will be the first T20I assignment for England. The 30-year-old English cricketer Jonny Bairstow feels that it is the starting point of their journey towards the next T20 World Cup.
After the four years of waiting, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will return in next year. It will run between 18th October and 15th November while Australia will host this tournament for the first time.
Ahead of the T20I series against the hosts New Zealand, England have played two T20 tour matches. While the visitors won the first T20 tour game, New Zealand XI won the second one.
In the first warm-up game, Bairstow was the hero for England. Chasing down the 173 runs target, Bairstow provided the match-winning batting performance of 78 not out off 45 balls.
Jonny Bairstow gave his opinion
Bairstow said after that game, “I think it does feel like the start of that journey towards the T20 World Cup. The cycle for the 50-over World Cup started four years ago. Hopefully, we’re fortunate enough that the way we’ve played our 50-over cricket will lead us well into our T20 cricket.
“It’s a fascinating period to be playing cricket for England. There’s some very, very talented guys that have played a lot of cricket now for England that are all together and have the experience of going through the ups, the downs and everything in between.”
In the previous edition, ICC World T20 2016, England finished as the runners-up. They were very close to winning their second World T20 trophy but Carlos Brathwaite‘s incredible last over batting snatched the game away from them.