By Andy Wilson
Liam Plunkett aims to put almost six months of frustration behind him when he leads the England Lions pace attack in the first of their four-day games against South Africa A which starts in Paarl tomorrow.
Plunkett’s international comeback after a difficult time with Durham followed by a revival at Yorkshire was cruelly cut short last July when he suffered a foot injury in England’s second Test defeat by India at Lord’s.
After making such a positive impression in the first four Tests of the summer, most of them played on unresponsive pitches, the 29-year-old Teessider was left kicking his heels as England surged from behind to win the last three matches of the series against Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team.
He had to shelve plans for a comeback late in the summer after feeling a separate problem in his other leg in a second XI game for Yorkshire, meaning he was also a frustrated spectator when the Tykes clinched the LV= County Championship at Trent Bridge in September.
But after hours of gruelling conditioning work at the England Performance Programme fast bowling camp in Potchefstroom before Christmas, and cumulative figures of 3-39 in 15 lively overs in the Lions warm-up game in Soweto, Plunkett is keen to make up for lost time.
“I felt last year was probably the best I’ve been in my career so far as a cricketer,” he told ecb.co.uk.
The table cloth's on today. And #englions training at Newlands. No sign of Chris Gayle pic.twitter.com/tQGDe8QVoO
— England Cricket (@ECB_cricket) January 10, 2015
“I was in a good place with ball and bat, and my paces were right up. But I feel like I’m in a good place again now.
“Before Christmas we did all the hard work in terms of strength training and getting the body going. We played one game in Potchefstroom and I got a few wickets in that, and we’ve had 10 days here and had one good game. Now the guys are really hungry for this first test.”
Plunkett made significant strides towards his international recall, which came seven years after the ninth of his 13 Test caps, with his performances on last February’s Lions tour of Sri Lanka.
“We played a good team and good cricket in Sri Lanka, and hopefully it will be the same this year,” he added, as one of six members of that squad who are involved for a second consecutive winter – Alex Lees,Sam Robson,James Vince,Mark Wood and Jonny Bairstow are the others.
Plunkett, Lees, Bairstow and the other three Yorkshire players on this tour all greeted a familiar face during practice at Newlands today, as their long-serving county board member and former president Robin Smith brought his South African grandson along to watch.
Both England and South Africa A, who will be coached by former Western Province fast bowler Vincent Barnes, have delayed confirmation of their teams until the morning of the match.
Temperatures in Paarl, which is about 40 miles inland from Cape Town and tends to be considerably hotter, are expected to exceed 30 degrees.