Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 19 (ANI): Ahead of the series decider against India, England assistant coach Paul Collingwood has said that these kinds of experiences will help them in the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played later this year.
The five-match T20I series is currently levelled at 2-2 with the blockbuster finale to be played on Saturday evening here at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
“It is a huge game and both teams know that. It feels like another great opportunity to get that experience of knockout cricket. We got two fantastic sides going head to head, enjoying good form and playing some good cricket. So, it is an exciting one. When you lead them to the World Cup, you need these kinds of experiences to see how players deal with the pressure,” Collingwood said in a virtual press conference.
“It will be a great confidence booster for all the players to play such a high-quality side in their home backyard to win the series. There is a lot of excitement around for series decider,” he added.
India skipper Virat Kohli on Thursday said that he fails to understand why the on-field umpire has to give a soft signal as “out” when the player himself is unsure regarding whether he has taken the catch or not and asked why can’t there be an “I-don’t-know” call for the umpires.
When asked about the soft-signal controversy, Collingwood said, “I think he got a point on boundary catches. It is hard enough for him to see what’s going on from 20 yards away than having a look 60-70m away to boundary catch. It is frustrating from the players’ point of view, it is frustrating from our point of view. I know myself when I played the game and genuinely catch getting fingers underneath the ball and when you see a replay, it happened to me many times you actually doubt yourself.”
“I don’t know what the solution is, to be honest, but certainly it is difficult for the umpires to make the on-field calls out in the middle to give the soft signal,” he added.
He further said that Dawid Malan will play a “special” knock on Saturday despite failing to convert the starts into big scores in the four matches of the series played so far.
“He (Malan) is number one in the world at the moment. He is the kind of player who we have seen in the past to get in and give himself few balls at the top of the innings and then make up for it in the end. He has not quite found his rhythm on this tour but you got to remember where he is in the world rankings. He has been pretty much exceptional for England in the T20Is. I think one thing this team has done so well in the past in the new-era of white-ball cricket is to back their cricketers who play the game. He got an opportunity again tomorrow to do something special,” Collingwood said. (ANI)