PLUNK ROCKED

Pace man Liam determined to prove critics wrong as he fights for his Yorkshire and England future

LIAM PLUNKETT is out to prove a point to club and country to make sure his wedding isn’t the only thing to put a smile on his face this year.

Dropped by Yorkshire for being ‘under-cooked’ on his return from the Indian Premier League, the fast bowler has been told he can look for a new county later this year.

And thanks to his wedding to long-term partner Emeleah Erb in October and a schedule switch, he will be giving up his England oneday spot without a fight.

It means the man who was England’s top one-day wicket-taker in 2017 could find himself in limbo in more ways than one heading into World Cup year as he misses out on this autumn’s hastily-arranged ODI clashes in Sri Lanka.

Plunkett said: “All I can do is try to do well for England this summer and make them think, ‘Well, he might miss a few games, can we get him for the rest of that Sri Lanka series?’ We planned the wedding then because originally it was a Test series that was there. Their board flipped it around and I was so deep into the preparation and I’m so excited that I’m not going to change and ruin everything for Emeleah.

“I think I miss two games. It’s not the end of the world, but people can come in and play well. If people play ahead of me, fair enough I’ll want them to do well, that’s the nature of sport.”

Over the course of his 15-year career Plunkett has seen it all and is happy to admit, ‘I’ve got no sympathy for them’ when talking about the Aussies.

Heading into today’s second ODI in Cardiff he is a key part of the international one-day side, which is why he was less than impressed by Yorkshire’s decision to drop him.

“I was disappointed to be dropped by Yorkshire,” added Plunkett. “I’d played the previous games and felt I went all right, but I had one bad performance, and if they want to drop me on that... they said I wasn’t ready, that I looked under-cooked.

“I just felt I was getting back into it, but that was the decision they took. I feel I can help win games for Yorkshire so obviously I was disappointed and I let them know that. It’s my last year and I went in for a chat with director of cricket Martyn Moxon, but I didn’t really get offered anything.

“They just said we’ll look into it in the next month or so but it gives me a right to speak to other counties – and I’m looking to do that.”