"No dead rubbers when you play for England": Fielding coach Carl ahead of World Cup clash with Netherlands
Pune, Maharashtra: Ahead of England's ICC Cricket World Cup match against the Netherlands, England fielding coach Carl Hopkinson said that there are no dead rubbers while representing Three Lions and the side looks forward to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled for 2025.
England will take on Netherlands at Pune on Wednesday. England has had a dissipating WC campaign and has lost six out of their seven matches. They are out of the tournament and placed at the bottom. The Netherlands has shown a lot of character and has wins against South Africa and Bangladesh to their name but have lost the rest of their five matches. They are placed at number nine. This match will be vital for both teams with regards to ICC CT 2025 qualification, for which the top eight teams of the tournament can qualify.
On whether England still has something to play for, England's fielding coach said at the pre-match press conference, "Absolutely, I do not think there is ever a dead rubber when you play for England, to be honest, I think the lads are completely up for - we have got two games in which we need to win both to qualify for the Champions Trophy, So I think that's there for everybody to see and the guys are going to be obviously up for it and I think we will be good tomorrow."
On the team for the next match, Carl said that they are going to wait till the practice and he has not spoken to coach Matthew Mott about it yet.
"Well, we are going to wait until after practice before we talk about the team. I have not spoken to Motty [Matthew Mott] about that quite yet or Jos [Buttler]. Normally, that is how we work. We normally will wait until after practice, see how we have got a few niggles kicking around the camp. Obviously, it has been a tough campaign in terms of games and travel, etc. And after the last game, there are a few niggles about, so we need to wait to get through training and find out that before any sort of changes were announced," said Carl.
On any niggles, Carl said that there is nothing serious as of now.
Carl said that under pressure during serious situations, the execution of the team has not been as good as it was earlier during this tournament.
"I think cricket can be a game of - It is about executing under pressure, is not it? Everybody knows that, and I think this team has been well known for doing that really, really well. It is an incredibly skilful team, it is a very talented team, but at key moments in certain situations, we have not executed under pressure like we normally do. And I think that is something that we can always look to improve on in practice and everything you go about doing. It is not to say that lads are not trying to do that in practice, they obviously are, but we have not got that right in key moments and I think that is something that we can definitely improve on," he said.
Carl also said that all-rounder Ben Stokes, who will be having a knee surgery after the World Cup will be looking forward to play the next two matches and win them for England and will go through the surgery only after the conclusion of the tournament.
On whether England put more effort in Tests than ODIs leading up to the WC, Carl said that it is not the case since they balance playing Tests and ODIs to get their best performances.
"So, I do not think there is ever one that gets put in front of the other. But there is always a balancing act when you have the Test series played so closely to the ODI series. So, you just try and make the calls as best you can around selection and have the team there for that. I do not think that's the case now," said Carl.
Afghanistan squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq.
England squad: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Brydon Carse, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.
