Stuart Broad is confident of England's prospects in the Twenty20 series
By Rob Barnett
While the three games with Australia this week represent the start of England’s build-up for the World Twenty20, skipper Stuart Broad says his side will concentrate on the immediate challenge facing them.
The tourists play Twenty20 internationals at Hobart tomorrow, Melbourne on Friday and Sydney on Sunday, giving an opportunity to end a difficult trip on a high.
Following a few weeks off, England then go to the West Indies for a limited-overs rubber against the Caribbean hosts ahead of the World T20 in Bangladesh, which begins in mid-March.
Broad, who has been involved in the Ashes and one-day series defeats, said: “All our focus is these three games. As I say, if you look too far ahead you can get yourself in a bit of a twist.
“There’s opportunities for guys in this particular squad to put their hands up for T20 World Cup spots, but I’m sure the team won’t be thinking like that.
“It’ll be about winning here at Hobart. It’ll be about going to the MCG, putting a strong performance in. The shorter our mindsets can be, just looking at what we have to do to win here tomorrow, the better chance we have of doing that.”
Broad is one of five players to still be Down Under as part of all three England squads, having suffered an Ashes whitewash and 4-1 one-day reverse.
However, the confident captain cited his team’s recent success in the shortest format, including sharing the NatWest T20 Series with Australia last summer.
“England cricket’s been through a bit of a tough three months,” he admitted. “There’s a lot of hurt players because we’ve not done ourself justice on the field.
“But it is also key to remember how well this T20 side have played for a year or so. We’ve won some really good games; we’ve played some really strong cricket.”
More immediately, several tourists approach the T20Is in excellent form. Eoin Morgan was the leading scorer on either side in the ODIs and Jos Buttler was fifth on that list.
Meanwhile, a few squad members have been playing in the Big Bash League, notably Luke Wright who has shone for Melbourne Stars.
“Morgs has been scoring runs. Buttler’s been scoring runs. Wrighty’s probably been the standout player of the Big Bash,” Broad, himself in fine fettle after five wickets in two matches, added.
“There’s a lot of confidence going into this series and we know T20 is a big confidence game. If you believe you can hit the ball over the ropes then generally you do.”