The waiting game

My gameplan early in my innings is simple: leave as much as I can outside off stump, particularly if the ball’s swinging away, and wait for the bowler to come to me. I try and collect runs off my legs or my hip, and wait for an opportunity to play a cut on the off-side.

I put the drive away, certainly for the early part of my innings until I’ve assessed the conditions, what the bowler’s doing and the pitch.

Find your perfect match

I’ve tended to have opening partners in 50-over cricket who like to take the attack to the bowler a bit more:
 Phil Jaques, Vikram Solanki and Tom Kohler-Cadmore in recent years. So I’ve tried to give them the strike, certainly in the early part of the powerplay, and let them express themselves.

Joe Clarke could be my opening partner in 50-over cricket this year and he’s another player who likes to play his shots and take the attack to the bowler early on. I look to be the perfect foil for those types of players.

Natural progression

When I started in 2003 I was more of a traditional opening bat – I modelled myself on Michael Atherton and Tim Curtis at Worcester. I’ve always been fairly solid in defence and prepared to bat for a long time.

But as I’ve played more white-ball cricket, I’ve tried to expand my game. The dinks and reverse sweeps have come in and it’s probably helped my red-ball cricket in terms of ball-striking.

It’s just evolved in that direction and
I’ve gone with the flow. I’m now always looking to reverse the pressure on the bowler; not necessarily by smashing boundaries, but just trying to get off strike on a regular basis and hitting the gaps.