Liam’s tougher after England nightmare
RED ROSE BATSMAN SAYS HE’S LEARNT FROM DIFFICULT START
LIAM Livingstone’s first taste of international cricket didn’t really go according to plan.
Called into England’s T20 side for this summer’s series against South Africa, the Lancashire batsman scored a grand total of 16 runs in two matches.
On his debut, at Taunton, he came in at No.4 and with the game to win. But despite making 16 off 18 balls, he struggled to find the big-hitting fluency he produces for the Red Rose as England slipped to defeat.
In his second game, he got a firstball duck.
And although the 24-year-old, who is now in Australia with the England Lions who are shadowing the Ashes Test squad, admits it was a tough introduction to life at the highest level, he is really glad it happened.
“It didn’t go how I wanted it to go,” Livingstone told M.E.N. Sport.
“Without trying to make excuses, it came at a bad time for me.
“I had tried to make adjustments to my game and it didn’t work for me – and I found out at the highest level it wasn’t going to work!
“If it had gone okay with England, then it wouldn’t have been the learning experience for me it ultimately was.
“It helped me no end. It was an eye-opener to what international cricket is all about.
“And it has given me the incentive to go back to show I can perform at that level.
“I am glad it went the way I did, it was a massive learning curve for me.
“There is no better place to learn than at the highest level. I look back now and think that throughout my career so far, that week with England was the biggest learning curve I have had.
“I wish I had done better, but sometimes the bad times in your career are the best learning times for you. “Cricket is probably the only sport where you fail more times than you succeed. “If you let those failures get to you, you are prolonging those failures. “I don’t think you can get judged on two games, anyone can have two bad games, it’s cricket, it’s what happens, especially in T20.”
Cricket is probably the only sport where you fail more times than you succeed Liam Livingstone