Sibley can Dominate ENGLAND MAY HAVE FOUND THE BIG-HITTER THEY NEED
EXCLUSIVE
DOM SIBLEY scores runs, lots of them, and he can craft an innings too. So the good news is that when England’s newest recruit bats, he goes big and long.
The country will be hoping its painful search for an obdurate opener to replace Alastair
Cook comes to an end next month in New
Zealand.
And all because of a piece of advice that the Warwickshire right-hander received when he was barely in his teens.
Sibley said:
“When I was about 13, I was playing for my school and I scored 100 against someone
– then I just gave my wicket away, having a go, because I thought the job was done. My cricket master was a guy called David Ward, who used to play for Surrey.
“After the match, he came up to me and said, ‘ You had another 10 overs to bat there. You could have got a 150 or 160. No one cares about 100s. What they care about is those big ones, the 150s or 160s – or more. When people look at scorecards, eca ds, those are the kind of numbers ers that make them say, “That’s s a proper score”.’
“I’ve never forgotten that – so going on after reaching 100 has always been a big thing with me.”
Six years ago, the then n
Surrey starlet made the cricket icket world sit up and take notice when he became the second- youngest double-centurion ever, crafting 242 against Yorkshire as an 18-year-old.
He faced over 1,000 balls, more than any other batsman in the County Championship this summer, racking up six successive centuries. His average of 70 has made him the stand-out candidate at the top of the order after England failed until the final Test of the summer to post an opening stand of more than 50.
It is proof that the 24-year-old has come of age after a sticky few years in which the early potential of that double ton left him battling against the hype which followed.
Sibley Sibley, who came through Surr Surrey’s system, admitted: “I st struggled after the double c century.”
Ashley Giles, then W Warwickshire’s director of c cricket, convinced Sibley t to leave The Oval for Ed Edgbaston. Sibley said: “It was a tough decision to leave Surrey. But I met with Jim Troughton, Warwickshire’s first-team coach, Ian Bell and Ashley. I told them my dream was to play for England and Ashley said, ‘ We think you can do that with us’.”
And this week the forward motion continued when he earned a new contract with Warwickshire.