The latest episode of the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast features an in-depth interview with England opener Dom Sibley.
The 24-year-old talked to host Yas Rana about his journey into the England set-up, and explained why he made the decision to move from Surrey to Warwickshire in 2017.
Yas Rana: How did that move come about and when did you start thinking ‘maybe I need a change of scenery here?’
Dom Sibley: I was in the last year of my contract and at the time I was batting at five in the four-day game. Although I wasn’t on anyone’s radar to play for England, I always had it in the back of my mind that that’s what I wanted to do. That was always my ambition: to play for England. I knew that the only places were in the top three at that time.
That was a massive factor behind it [leaving Surrey], and that opportunity wasn’t going to be there at Surrey because they’d signed [Mark] Stoneman and [Scott] Borthwick, and [Rory Burns] Burnsy was scoring millions of runs. That was maybe my thinking and I probably needed a bit of change of scenery. What I realised with moving clubs was that you have to go away and prove yourself again to a whole bunch of people and I think that was a good thing for me.
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YR: That’s seriously backing yourself when you’re batting five for Surrey and you’re still thinking at that time that ‘for me to play for England I’ve got to be batting in the top three’. Where do you think you got that confidence from?
DS: I wouldn’t say it was confidence. It was just awareness of the situation and also, that’s always been my ambition, to play for England. I could easily have sat around at Surrey and batted at five and been in and out. It’s an amazing place to play and that’s not a bad thing, but I always wanted to play for England. I felt at the time that the move to Warwickshire was the best way to do that.
The Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast is available on Spotify and the Podcast app
