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Senior seamer hoping to build into World Cup just like in 2019

Matt Roller12-Oct-2023Chris Woakes made an inauspicious start to this World Cup. After leaking 45 runs in six wicketless overs against New Zealand in Ahmedabad, he had figures of 0 for 34 after four against Bangladesh in Dharamsala, conceding six early boundaries as Reece Topley got on a roll at the other end.No wonder Woakes looked relieved when he finally got on the board for the tournament, having Mehidy Hasan Miraz caught behind while driving a ball that did just enough off the seam to take the outside edge. He returned to have Litton Das caught behind in his second spell, and finished with figures of 2 for 49 off eight overs in England’s 137-run victory.But Woakes is used to starting slowly. In 2019, he took four wickets at 54.75 in England’s first five World Cup games, while conceding 6.25 runs per over; in their final six matches, he took 12 wickets at 18.91, with his economy rate falling to 4.54 runs per over. Across the semi-final and the final, he returned combined figures of 6 for 57.Related

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It is not a conscious strategy. “You want to hit the ground running,” he said on Thursday, a rest day for England after they flew to Delhi ahead of Sunday’s fixture against Afghanistan. “But they are long competitions, and you don’t want to peak too soon… I have built into tournaments in the past and into series, which I suppose holds me in good stead.”Woakes assessed his own form as follows: “Ideally, I’d like to have gone a bit better… I wouldn’t have said that I’ve probably bowled as well as I know I can.” By his own admission, he got things wrong against New Zealand, when he erred too full and was picked off by Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, particularly in the initial powerplay.”The conditions did change, and we probably didn’t quite adapt as well as we’d have liked,” he said. “I probably haven’t executed as well as I can, but I picked up two really important wickets in the last game. In a game like that, wickets are really important, so I was pleased to have picked up those two and it gives me confidence moving forwards.”His second spell on Tuesday was particularly encouraging – and, specifically, the wicket of Das, whose 76 off 66 was the outstanding innings of Bangladesh’s attempt to chase 365. Woakes is known as “The Wizard” by his England team-mates, and the ball that accounted for Das was the culmination of several months’ work on a new trick.Since turning his attention to white-ball cricket after the Ashes, Woakes has been working on his cutters – in particular, an offcutter which he is trying to bowl with the seam upright. “In these conditions, if I can bowl it with the seam up and it grabs the seam, it either holds or skids a little bit better,” he explained. “The delivery itself is the same, it’s just the way it comes out from a seam point of view.”Working with Warwickshire’s bowling coach, Stuart Barnes, Woakes has also been perfecting a legcutter, which he bowled extensively through his second spell against Bangladesh. “I obviously had this [the World Cup] in mind. Coming here to Asia, I think it could be a wicket-taking delivery, taking the ball away from a right-hander… you’re always trying to adapt your game and trying to develop it, regardless of your age.”England’s next assignment is Sunday’s day-night match against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, a venue which has hosted two uncharacteristically fast-scoring games so far. Despite spending an IPL season with Delhi Capitals, Woakes never played for them at the venue – though did play there once in 2017 for Kolkata Knight Riders, and in a tour match for England a decade ago.”It’s quite an iconic Indian cricket ground, isn’t it?” Woakes said. “It’s always exciting to play at these sorts of venues. It looks like it’s been relatively high-scoring… we’ll expect that, but we’ll have to adapt to conditions on the day and we’re coming up against an Afghanistan team who are dangerous and can really compete on their day. We won’t be taking them lightly either.”And despite a gruelling travel schedule – England’s fixture list is the second-most taxing of any team, behind the hosts India – Woakes is optimistic that he could feature in all nine of their group games, as he did in 2019. “I obviously would like to,” he said. “I certainly hope so… from a physical point of view, I think it’s possible.”

Weather warning on North Island as two-day tour game peters out to draw

Vithushan Ehantharajah09-Feb-2023England XI 465 (Brook 97, Lawrence 85, Root 77, Foakes 57) vs New Zealand XIAs England’s tour match at Seddon Park drifted to an inevitably tame conclusion, the prospect of further fine-tuning ahead of the series opener in Mount Maunganui was thrown into doubt with warnings of an incoming tropical cyclone.On Thursday the MetService issued a warning that Cyclone Gabrielle would hit the upper of New Zealand’s North Island from Sunday morning, bringing gusts of up to 150kph and as much as 300mm of rain at the start of the week. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has extended the state of emergency for a further seven days as a result, a week after torrential rains caused widespread damage to the region. The Coromandel Peninsula, which sits just above Mount Maunganui, has followed suit.England are due to arrive on Sunday with the first Test starting next Thursday (February 16). The first three days of next week were viewed as the ideal lead-in to bring players fully up to scratch, supplementing the four days training at the venue earlier in the tour, and this week in Hamilton, which culminates in an optional session on Friday morning (February 9). Now that build-up looks under serious threat.Day two of England’s tour match at Seddon Park drifted predictably. A New Zealand XI flayed for 465 inside 69.2 overs on day one made the endeavour worthwhile with a spirited 310 all out in 82.1 overs through to 8:52pm local time. Quinn Sunde’s battling yet classy 91 was the pick of their resistance.The main quicks James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson and Olly Stone got a reasonable workout with the pink ball across three spells during the day. while Jack Leach led the way with 17 overs of left-arm spin.Ben Stokes, however, remained a bystander as Ollie Pope captained in his absence, as was the case in England’s warm-up match against the Lions ahead of the Pakistan series in Abu Dhabi. While he put himself through the wringer in the nets and out in the middle during the interval, there is a real chance that cyclone will prevent Stokes from getting the ideal amount of work in before the series begins.Related

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It is not a fear not shared by head coach Brendon McCullum, however, who backed Stokes’ decision to stay out of his whites for the last couple of days.”Some characters don’t need warm-up games,” McCullum said. “The bigger the competition, the more they step up. He [Stokes] has never been a warm-up-game kind of guy and I don’t see that changing any time soon.”Anderson and Broad opened proceedings, reunited after Broad missed Pakistan for the birth of his first child, and it was the latter who got the ball rolling, taking a sharp return catch off William O’Donnell. Anderson was made to wait until the 73rd over, removing Curtis Heaphy, caught at first slip by Joe Root once the lights had taken over for the first time in the match. However, he did affect a dismissal earlier with the run-out of Robert O’Donnell.Numerically, Stone was the pick of the attack, finishing with 3 for 54. His previous first-class match had been the second Test against New Zealand at Edgbaston in June 2021 before a fourth stress fracture of the back and subsequent operation kept him out for a year.Up to now, Stone’s return to action had been white-ball only: for Warwickshire, Chennai Braves in the T10, MI Cape Town in the SA20 and the first two ODIs of England’s series with South Africa, before flying to New Zealand. Here, he bowled with good pace, eventually snaring Sunde with a sharp delivery eliciting a twitch outside off stump from the right-hander.Matthew Potts, however, was perhaps the most impressive quick on display, after missing out on the tour of Pakistan. His luck was summed up with his first delivery, which tailed in and seamed away to catch Test opener Will Young’s outside edge, only for Zak Crawley to put down the catch at second slip. Potts did eventually get one in the wicket column when Kyle Jamieson hooked a bouncer high to Pope out at deep square leg.Potts, Stone and Broad will be vying for one spot in the XI for the first Test, with Anderson, Robinson and Leach in possession. The consideration for Stokes and McCullum is who will offer the best point of difference as England seek to bring to an end a seven-match winless run in New Zealand and in turn register a first series win here since 2008.On the face of it, Stone’s ability to tip the speed gun into the 90s is the precisely the point of difference England would want, particularly with a pink Kookaburra ball on a batter-friendly pitch. England’s only previous match at Mount Maunganui saw them lose by an innings and 65 runs after New Zealand posted 615 for 9.

“People ask me that question, obviously,” says the bowler who was born in Pretoria and moved to New Zealand 14 years ago

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Feb-2022Matt Henry was the standout bowling star for New Zealand, with Tim Southee a not-too-distant second, in their innings-and-276-run win over South Africa in the first Test, but Pretoria-born Neil Wagner played his part too, with three wickets and a snappy innings of 49. Now, as New Zealand go into the second and final Test looking for their first Test series win over South Africa, Wagner is clear that “we really want to beat them in the series”, it won’t be “different to any of the other ones” New Zealand have won in recent years.”They are a quality team, and we really want to, obviously, beat them in the series. They have always been a quality unit,” Wagner said three days off from the start of the second Test, also in Christchurch. “People ask me that question, obviously, because I was born there. But I’ve been living here for 14 years now, so it’s something I don’t think about too much, or it doesn’t really feel that way. I probably only really know two or three guys in that team anyway. So it’s a lot different to what it was when I started my career personally.Related

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“But to beat any team… we’ve achieved a couple of things throughout the years now, beating England for the first time in I don’t know how many years. [It’s] the same no matter who you play, we saw that a couple of months ago when we played against Bangladesh, how they played in our conditions.”Test cricket against any Test team is pretty tough, and every win is one you can treasure. This will be pretty special, but it’s no different to any of the other ones.”It has been a remarkable run for New Zealand in Test cricket of late. In the 2019-2021 World Test Championship, they won eight of their 12 games, including the final against India, to take home the crown. The new cycle hasn’t begun well for them, as they lost 1-0 in India and then drew 1-1 at home against Bangladesh, but it has been back to business against South Africa, as the pace quartet of Southee, Wagner, Henry and Kyle Jamieson rolled the opposition over for 95 and 111 in the first Test.”Nice thing about this team is everyone’s got a bit of experience now; helps, obviously, the more you’re playing,” Wagner said. “When you play quality teams and are able to put performances in, it definitely helps in getting more experience but also getting the confidence out of it too. Hopefully we can keep growing as a unit and take it forward.”It was a strong performance [in the first Test], it was really good, obviously everyone chipped in, and in all facets, and Matt Henry obviously being absolutely outstanding for us. Yeah, pretty pleasing Test match for us, but it’s something in the past now, got to put this behind us quite quickly and move forward to Friday, because South Africa is a quality team and will come back firing. So we also want to be on top of our game and keep improving as we go forward.”Wagner’s 49 in just 56 balls – from No. 5 in the first innings – also helped New Zealand, who had begun that second morning on 116 for 3 with Henry Nicholls and Wagner in the middle. “[I thought] I might just try and play an aggressive game and try and see if I can hopefully score some quick runs and take the game away from them,” Wagner said. “Quite nice it came off on the day, and hopefully I can do something similar in the future again. I take a lot of pride in my batting and try to contribute for the team wherever I can. I love batting and hopefully I can keep going.”Neil Wagner hit seven fours and two sixes in his 56-ball 49 in the first Test•Getty Images

But it’s the bowling department where his team, and captain Tom Latham, will expect Wagner and the others to be at their best. One more time for now.”It’s obviously great for a guy like Matt to come in and have some rewards and some success, as someone who is carrying the drinks for a number of times now,” Wagner said. “And coming in for one Test and going out, you never really get into too much of a rhythm. So for him to get some reward is very pleasing.”We keep bowling for each other, and we keep passing that baton on, that the rewards will swing around like it has been, and… but yeah, it’s bowling for the other guys, and whosever day it is has to get right around him. I thought Tim Southee was outstanding again with the new ball, and the same for Kyle and all the other guys, just keep chipping in and doing our jobs.And, back in Christchurch, New Zealand can expect a bit of a crowd again, with Covid-19 restrictions in place, of course. “Christchurch crowd has always been fantastic, they always get behind us, they support us quite well, and even though it was a smaller crowd, it was nice to see some faces around of people, chanting and singing along and cheering us along,” Wagner acknowledged. “It goes a long way; no-one wants to play in front of an empty stadium, which can be sometimes tough work as well. So really appreciate, obviously, all that support from the public and hopefully long may that continue.”

Allrounder’s 64* and two wickets keep hosts on top in tight contest with Northants

ECB Reporters Network11-Jul-2023Northamptonshire 219 and 55 for 2 (Vasconcelos 22, Higgins 2-11) trail Middlesex 277 (Higgins 64*, Stoneman 51, Keogh 3-52) by 3 runsRyan Higgins displayed his all-round prowess on day two of Middlesex’s LV= Insurance County Championship Division One basement battle with visitors Northamptonshire at Merchant Taylors’ School.Higgins, in his second spell with the tenants of Lord’s, made 64 not out, his sixth half-century of the season, to steer the hosts from the perils of 127-5 to only their second batting bonus point of the campaign and a total of 277 – a first innings lead of 58. Mark Stoneman was Middlesex’s other half-centurion with 51, while Max Holden made 41. Rob Keogh impressed with his off-spin for Northamptonshire, returning three for 53, while Ben Sanderson took three for 76.Not content with his batting efforts, Harare-born Higgins then removed both Ricardo Vasconcelos and Justin Broad when Northamptonshire batted again, the visitors almost achieving parity by the close on 55-2, three runs behind.While Northamptonshire relied on stoic defence for their score on day one, Middlesex adopted more of a risk-and-reward approach, playing more shots, rotating the strike and, wherever possible, turning ones into twos to put pressure on the fielders. In the end, it brought some reward, though on a pitch of already variable bounce it remains to be seen whether a 58-run lead will be sufficient for a side who have to bat last.Stoneman signalled Middlesex’s more aggressive intent with two fours from one Jack White over before striking the seamer back over his head for six.Nightwatchman Ethan Bamber kept Stoneman company through the first seven overs, taking a little more of the shine off the Kookaburra ball before Sanderson uprooted his middle stump.Rob Keogh picked up three wickets•Getty Images

It would be the visitors’ last success for some time as Stoneman and fellow former England opener Sam Robson forged a half-century stand at not far shy of a run a ball. Stoneman twice savagely cut Sanderson to the fence at point while Robson found the cover boundary twice with dreamy drives.However, the right-handed Robson, like many in the match before him, never looked set and it was no surprise when White found the edge of his bat to give wicketkeeper McManus the first of his four victims behind the stumps.Stoneman became the first batter in the match to reach 50 only to fall in White’s next over when a shortish ball didn’t get up high enough for his attempted pull shot and instead picked out the left-hander’s middle stump. And when Pieter Malan and John Simpson departed to Sanderson and Tom Taylor, respectively, either side of the lunch interval Middlesex looked set for the batting equivalent of ‘Groundhog Day.’It was now Higgins made his entrance, promptly pulling his first ball through square leg for four, but thereafter it was Max Holden who made the running in their stand of 64, cutting and driving the seamers before greeting spinner Keogh with a reverse sweep for another boundary. Again though, just as the former England U19 skipper appeared set, Keogh got one through his defences to trap him on the crease.Josh De Caires didn’t stay long and when Stephen Eskinazi, batting at nine because of the finger injury sustained on day one, edged into the hands of Gay in the gully, Middlesex’s lead was a mere 11.Higgins, though, went through to a controlled 50 from 85 balls with six fours and, with the help of skipper Toby Roland-Jones, steered the hosts to that second batting point of the campaign, a landmark greeted with loud, if a little ironic applause from the Middlesex faithful.The eventual lead of 58, while not massive, looked useful, and Higgins struck in his first over to cut short a blossoming Ricardo Vasconcelos effort on 22.Broad soon followed when he edged through to Simpson, who stood up to the stumps to stop the batter standing out of his crease to negate the prospect of being leg before.

Both named in the squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa; Jess Kerr returns from injury

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Aug-2023Uncapped batter Kate Anderson and allrounder Bella Armstrong have been named in New Zealand’s squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa.Andeson, 27, comes in on the back of a top domestic season for Canterbury, in which she topped the T20 batting charts with 536 runs at 59. She was subsequently in line for a call-up for the tour of Sri Lanka in July, but had to pull out due to a finger injury.Auckland’s Armstrong, 23, will only play the T20Is in South Africa, replacing Izzy Gaze who is in South Africa for the ODI leg of the tour.Coach Ben Sawyer was all praise for the duo. “Kate had an outstanding domestic season last year and was unfortunate to miss the Sri Lanka tour through injury,” he said. “We like her power and skills with the bat and we’re looking forward to giving her an opportunity on the international stage.”Bella’s an exciting young prospect who hits the ball hard and is an outstanding fielder, so she’s got all the attributes that we want from a White Fern.”The squad also features seamer Jess Kerr, who’s returning from injury. “It’s a real bonus to have Jess back in the squad after injury ruled her out of the Sri Lanka tour,” Sawyer said. “She’s got a world-class bowling skill set and is especially effective with her in-swinger, which is proving more and more difficult in the women’s game.”Jess bookends the innings, especially in a T20 match, as she swings it up front and then bowls an amazing legcutter at the death.”New Zealand kick off the tour of South Africa with a warm-up one-dayer on September 21, followed by three ODIs and five T20Is. The squad will undergo a training camp before leaving for South Africa, from September 10 to 14, in Tauranga.Allrounder Hayley Jensen was not considered for selection for the tour as she is yet to fully recover from the knee surgery she underwent in May.New Zealand squad for the tour of South Africa: Sophie Devine (capt), Kate Anderson, Bella Armstrong (T20Is only), Suzie Bates, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Eden Carson, Izzy Gaze (ODIs only), Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Fran Jonas, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu

Lizelle Lee’s 61 off 33 threatens but outgoing champions scrape home in tight finish

David Diangienda21-Aug-2023Nadine de Klerk’s unbeaten half-century set up a consolation win for outgoing champions Oval Invincibles against Trent Rockets to round off their campaign.The South African all-rounder hit 51 not out from 25 balls to rescue the Invincibles’ innings and led them to 155 for 6 at The Kia Oval.The Rockets fell just three runs short as late hitting from Alexa Stonehouse threatened to steal the win after Lizelle Lee’s 61 from 33 at the top of the order.The Rockets finished off their tournament without former England international Katherine Sciver-Brunt, who had been due to play her final game before retirement, but she was ruled out due to a hip injury.The Rockets struck with the second ball of the innings when Stonehouse found some movement to bowl Lauren Winfield-Hill for a duck.Stonehouse then bowled Invincibles stand-in captain Suzie Bates in her second set before Alice Capsey got on top of the bowling, hitting Bryony Smith over long-on for six.But Kirstie Gordon was able to peg the home side back having Marizanne Kapp stumped before Capsey departed for 35 off 24 after missing a sweep at the left-arm spinner.Paige Scholfield and De Klerk began a rebuilding job as they struck a partnership of 23 from 15, which was ended when the former was bowled aiming an ambitious shot off Naomi Dattani.But De Klerk accelerated the Invincibles’ score by hitting three consecutive fours as Stonehouse’s final set of five went for 27 and the partnership of 68 from 31 with Cordelia Griffith lifted the home side above 150.The Rockets got off to a good start as Lee struck a couple of boundaries off Kapp’s first set but the Invincibles seamer made the breakthrough by having Smith caught by Bates at long off.Eva Gray took the key wicket of Harmanpreet Kaur with her second ball, but Lee attacked the bowling aggressively. The Rockets opener raced to her half-century off 28 balls slamming Ryana McDonald-Gay over midwicket for her third six and shared a partnership of 63 from 37 with captain Nat Sciver-Brunt.That raised hopes for the visitors of reaching the target, but Sciver-Brunt was lbw to Sophia Smale and two balls later Scholfield’s throw on the turn ran out Lee with a direct hit at the bowler’s end.Scholfield was able to follow up with a nonchalant return catch to dismiss Joanne Gardner. Then Smale picked up another wicket as she finished with 2 for 26 and although Stonehouse struck three boundaries in a row in a nervy finish, the Rockets came up three runs short.

Also, Saha undergoes ‘successful right finger surgery’ after picking up fracture in pink-ball Test

Shashank Kishore27-Nov-2019A week after being left out of India’s T20I squad without playing a game against Bangladesh, Sanju Samson has been called in again as an injury replacement for regular opener Shikhar Dhawan for the three T20Is against West Indies starting on December 6.Dhawan injured his left leg, which the BCCI’s medical team described as a “deep cut on his left knee”, during a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game for Delhi against Maharashtra last week. Dhawan still “needs some more time for his stitches to come off and his wound to heal properly”, the BCCI said in a media release.In Dhawan’s absence, it is more than likely India will slot in the in-form KL Rahul at the top of the order with Rohit Sharma. Rahul has been key to Karnataka’s excellent run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – the domestic T20s – having aggregated 225 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 145.16, with a highest 84 off 48 balls against Punjab, as of November 26.Samson featured in just four of Kerala’s six matches in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy, finishing with one half-century. Prior to that, he struck the highest individual score (212*) in Vijay Hazare Trophy – the domestic one-dayers – history. It was also his maiden List A hundred, which helped him earn a national recall after four years.Samson, whose only appearance for India came in a T20I in Zimbabwe in 2015, was set to take part in Rajasthan Royals’ conditioning camp for their local players in Talegaon in the first week of December. Since finishing his commitments in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Samson has been training under his personal coach Biju George, the former fielding coach of the India women’s team, in Thiruvananthapuram.Meanwhile, wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha underwent surgery in Mumbai on Tuesday for a fracture on his right ring finger. The 35-year-old, who was lauded for his wicketkeeping during India’s inaugural day-night pink-ball Test in Kolkata, picked up the injury during the game.He was subsequently referred to a hand and wrist specialist, who suggested a “surgical fixation of the fracture”. The BCCI termed the surgery “successful”, and Saha is expected to commence rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. It’s as yet unclear how long Saha’s injury will take to heal.India’s next Test assignment is a tour of New Zealand in February.India’s squad for West Indies T20Is: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sanju Samson

‘It’s a brilliant landmark for me but I’ve definitely got a lot of unfinished business,’ new vice-captain says

Valkerie Baynes01-Apr-2021When he travels to Northamptonshire for next week’s County Championship season opener, Daniel Bell-Drummond will be just over a month shy of marking a decade as a Kent player.Bell-Drummond, the opening batsman who was recently appointed vice-captain of the club where he made his debut as a 17-year-old, believes he has plenty left to achieve.”It’s absolutely flown,” Bell-Drummond said from Canterbury. “I can remember it very clearly, my debut game here against Loughborough Uni in 2011, taking a bit of time off school to come and play.”Some of the guys get stuck into me about how long I’ve been playing, even [Kent batting coach] Michael Yardy says, ‘it makes me feel young,’ because he’s played against me a fair bit.”I still feel quite young. I’m 28 this year so there’s still a lot of time left hopefully and I’m looking forward to the season. It marks 10 years but I’ve still got so much to learn. It’s a brilliant landmark for me but I’ve definitely got a lot of unfinished business and I know I can be a lot better.”Related

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A productive winter in which he played for Colombo Kings in the Lanka Premier League – he scored 70 in a losing cause in the final – came after he ended last year’s T20 Blast as the leading run-scorer with 423 runs at an average of 42.30 and strike rate of 154.94. In the Bob Willis Trophy he managed 185 runs at an average of 23.12 with a highest score of 45.Following the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the domestic schedule last year, the prospect of a full season, which will include juggling his Kent duties with those at Birmingham Phoenix after he was picked up in the Hundred draft, is enticing.”I’ve had the least cricket in the last 12 months that I’ve ever had since being a professional cricketer so I should be ready,” Bell-Drummond said. “I’ve had enough time sitting on the sofa. I’m really looking forward to the summer ahead, being involved in the Hundred as well. My main priority at the moment is for our set of Championship games and doing well for Kent.”On that front, Bell-Drumond has started promisingly, scoring a century against Essex and a fifty against Middlesex in their pre-season friendlies.A second-place finish in the South Group behind eventual champions Essex in last season’s Bob Willis Trophy has Kent feeling they are headed in the right direction.They have recruited players at both ends of the experience spectrum, securing the services of West Indies fast bowler Miguel Cummins for the first eight games and on Wednesday announced the signing of 20-year-old Tawanda Muyeye on a three-year contract. Zimbabwe-born Muyeye, an attacking batsman who can also bowl handy off-spin, was the Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year in 2020, an honour previously won by the Likes of Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Bell-Drummond himself.With captain Sam Billings having linked up with IPL side Delhi Capitals as he continues his recovery from a collarbone injury sustained while playing for England in their ODI series in India, Bell-Drummond is preparing to lead Kent for the early part of the Championship, as planned.”Having done the role a little bit before while Sam’s been away, I know what to expect and I’ve got some good coaches and senior players around me and keeping in contact with Sam from abroad so we’ve got a plan in place and I’m looking forward to playing my role in that for sure,” Bell-Drummond said.”It’s really exciting times, there’s a great balance within the squad, quite a few young players coming through who are very hungry to stake their claims, so I’m really looking forward to the year, not just from a personal perspective but from a team point of view.”