Liam Plunkett not holding his breath when it comes to being named in England's Ashes squad
Interview: Plunkett was named as a possible dark horse for England’s Ashes squad by former captain Michael Vaughan, but the fast bowler admits he does not expect to get the call
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Your support makes all the difference.Liam Plunkett may have been mooted as a possible dark horse for England’s Ashes squad by former captain Michael Vaughan, but the fast bowler admits he does not expect to get the call when the squad for Australia is announced on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old has been his country’s most consistently quick and threatening short-form bowler over the past two years and his first five-wicket haul in international 50-over cricket helped England to victory in Sunday’s third ODI against West Indies in Bristol.
Despite not having played a Test for more than three years, his latest performance prompted Vaughan, England’s 2005 Ashes-winning captain, to suggest Plunkett should be considered for the tour of Australia, especially with doubts remaining over the fitness of Mark Wood and Toby Roland-Jones having been ruled out with a back injury.
“I think Liam Plunkett is back on the radar for the Ashes,” said Vaughan. “The one thing I worry about with England – if Mark Wood is injured – is a lack of pace. You need something a little different from James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
“At the minute, the fact Australia have bowlers all capable of bowling at 90 miles-per-hour - that could be the difference when the ball stops swinging.”
Plunkett has long stated his desire to get back into England’s Test team.
But he is all too aware he is unlikely to be part of the Ashes this winter given he has played just two first-class games for Yorkshire in a summer that has seen his County Championship appearances restricted by involvement with England’s limited-overs teams and a groin injury.
“Obviously I’d love to go in the Ashes squad but I know it’s far for me,” said Plunkett. “I’ve done well in white-ball cricket and I’ve been successful in that, so maybe they think me as a white-ball bowler.
“I guess they know what they’re going to get with me, I’ve been around for plenty of time, but there’s obviously people performing in county cricket who have done well and I guess they’re looking at them too, so if I got the go-ahead, happy days but I can’t see it happening.”
The last of Plunkett’s 13 Test appearances came against India at Lord’s in July 2014. His record – 41 wickets at 37.46 – is not spectacular but his pace could prove a useful weapon on the faster pitches of Australia.
Yet doubts over his match fitness in red-ball cricket persist given his lack of recent first-class action and in Jake Ball, Steven Finn and even Somerset’s Craig Overton there are three seam bowlers who appear ahead of Plunkett in the pecking order for a place on that Ashes tour.
In terms of one-day cricket, both Plunkett and England are looking good right now ahead of the fourth ODI against West Indies at The Oval on Wednesday.
Eoin Morgan’s team are 2-0 up in the series and will be looking for the victory in London that will see them seal it with a game to spare.
Plunkett’s value to the team as a first-change bowler is illustrated by his haul of 50 wickets at an average of 25 over the past two years.
“Everyone wants to see sixes and fours,” he says. “So, you try to come in in that middle part of an innings, and that’s why I do like it because you feel as though you can run the game in that period, you can close a team down, squeeze them. I love to be the bad guy for the crowd, it means I’m not getting hit out of the park.”
The biggest threat to Plunkett and the rest of England’s attack in the remaining two matches of this series remains Chris Gayle, who struck 94 from 78 balls in Bristol before his notoriously sluggish movement between the wickets saw him run out.
Gayle may be 38 but the brutal clean-hitting that has seen him score 39 centuries and more than 18,000 international runs across all formats looked as good as ever on Sunday.
“He played nicely, didn’t he?” said Plunkett. “Early on he was really tough to bowl to. We’ve got a method though - we have to try and squeeze him. You can try and tie him down a bit early on, but he’s a good player and if you miss, he’ll hit it miles. Obviously, you’ve got to keep an eye on the field, if you can get an early run out that’s something we should
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