Titch thinks big to lead ODI side
JAMES TAYLOR hopes to take his excellent batting record as a captain to the international stage this week as he leads England for the first time.
Taylor – or Titch as he is known at Trent Bridge – has played some of his biggest innings since becoming limited-overs captain of Nottinghamshire.
He was phenomenal for the Outlaws in 2014, crashing 444 runs in seven Royal London Cup matches, including three hundreds.
During his purple patch last summer he also hit an unbeaten 103 as captain of the England Lions to chase down Sri Lanka A’s 283-6 at New Road. On Friday, he will lead half a dozen of that team for the full England side against Ireland in Dublin.
“It has always been a strength of mine to look at situations and be there at the end, winning games for the teams I am playing for,” said Taylor, a rare beacon during England’s miserable winter of one-day woe.
“I have done that more consistently as time has gone by and being captain makes you think about both innings of the game in greater detail.
“When I am batting I am always thinking about the end result and I tend to work backwards, trying to plan my way through innings even if that means scoring ugly runs.”
England are set to hand a first cap to Adil Rashid since 2009 after ferrying the Yorkshire leg-spinner and Durham fast bowler Mark Wood back from the Caribbean where they have been on Test duty.
Ireland can be giant-killers, though, and with England set to hand out debuts to Wood, David Willey and James Vince they will fancy their chances of emulating their 2011 World Cup victory at Malahide.