Dubai: When Pakistan fans learnt England’s hard-hitting Jos Buttler, who trashed a century in 46 balls in a One-dayer, was being rested for the first Twenty20 match, they heaved a sigh of relief. After all, they never expected Sam Billings, who replaced Buttler as the wicketkeeper-batsman, to be as aggressive and destructive.
They were proved spectacularly wrong in the first of back-to-back T20 games at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday night as Billings shocked everyone with a half-century that came off just 24 balls as England scored a 14-run win.
Just 24 years of age, the same as the number of balls he played to reach his half century, Billings personified the changing trend in England’s approach towards Twenty20 cricket. Even debutant James Vince, who also is as young as Billings, missed his half-century by only nine runs.
Speaking after the match, Billings said: “It’s nice to make a contribution in a winning side. We all saw how well Jos [Buttler] played the other day — it was a ridiculous innings. If you get an opportunity, you’ve got to take it.”
Billings played some breathtakingly innovative shots — be it scoop shots or the slog sweep, revealing that he has been working hard on mastering those shots. “It’s just a case of using your options wisely, and thankfully it came off tonight,” he said.
England skipper Eoin Morgan was lauded for his decision in resting top players and giving some newcomers a break. The trend may continue through the series as he wants to give chances to as many youngsters with an eye to find the right combination for the 2016 Twenty20 World Cup in India. “‘We want to see as much as we can. In county cricket, we just don’t have a good enough tournament for guys to be exposed to it as often as we would like. I think this is a good tour to expose as many guys as we can to it. If it means senior guys sit out, so be it,” said Morgan, who cracked an unbeaten 45. “We are trying to expand our squad as much as we can. For the long term benefit, we’ll probably see that more so throughout the series. I thought they were exceptional — at 19 for three, Vince coming in on his debut to play the way he did on a wicket that the three before struggled to adjust to was outstanding. That will give him a lot of confidence. All the guys who have come in today have done really, really well.”
Run outs continued to haunt Pakistan cricket even in Twenty20s after the spate of run-outs in the One-day series. Coach Waqar Younis speaking about the run-out of Umar Akmal in a terrible mix up with Shan Masood, with both batsmen sprinting towards the bowler’s end, said jokingly “The way they ran, they both should have been run-out. They need to get their heads together and ask themselves what is happening, because there is no answer for that.”
Younis admitted that his team’s batting was poor even though England’s target was an achievable one. “‘It was very poor batting. If you lose three wickets like that in the middle overs, you will lose — in any format,” he said.
