Graeme Swann
In the recent encounter of the English against the Dutch, the Ashes-winning off-spinner Graeme Swann returned to international action for the first time since the birth of his son. And, his performance of two wickets for 35 runs was affirmative for the English side in a rather dismal display by them in the match!
And Swann, who had been struggling with a knee injury, seemed contented by his bowling performance upon returning to international cricket “I’m delighted because I’ve let the team down a couple of times before after a bit of a break and promised I wouldn’t do it this time, so I’m glad I lived up to my word.”
Swann than spoke about the match against the Indians, he said, “The fact it’s against India in India is going to make it a huge game! We had a very poor time of things in the one-day series here a couple of years ago, so that’s certainly something we want to turn around because there is nothing better than silencing an Indian crowd.”
“You don’t want them to be screaming all day because it’s ear-shattering. Come Bangalore it will be a huge game and one we will need to raise our standards for, particularly in the field because, let’s face it, we were like a bunch of schoolboys against Netherlands.”
The sloppy England fielding in the previous match is a concern for them. This included a dropped catch of the Dutch all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate, who went on to make a century!He skied Swann on 47 only for James Anderson at long-on and Kevin Pietersen at long-off to leave the chance to each other as the ball fell safely between them.
About this Swann said,”They both got the glare. When it goes 80 yards in the air and two of your best fielders stand and watch it land between them, it’s never great as a bowler but I can’t really complain because I dropped that high swirler near the end. Everything evens itself out.”
Swann also reported sub-continent pitches to be not that much spin-supportive! “I think it is hit or miss in India with spin. People always say that spin plays a massive part and wickets turn square over here. They don’t and there was a little bit of spin (against the Netherlands) but it wasn’t huge”, he said.
Tags: Bangalore, Cricket, England, Fans, Graeme Swann, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India, Spinner, World Cup
