Topley Targeting T20 World Cup Spot

Hampshire fast-bowler Reece Topley believes this off-season has been his most hectic and enjoyable to date, as he sets his sights on a place at the ICC T20 World Cup with England.

The left-arm seamer endured a frustrating spell with his former county Essex due to a back injury leaving him on the sidelines for much for the 2014 season, but after putting that behind him, Topley has clearly enjoyed a busy off-season so far with England and the England Lions in Dubai:

 “It has certainly been the busiest winter I’ve ever had, a complete contrast to last season and it’s been really enjoyable going all over the world with a nice bunch of lads and being successful on the pitch.

“I put a lot of hard work now into my preparation which has contributed to me on the field to be more robust and more physically prepared for the job of a bowler.”

Topley impressed with the ball during England one-day series against Pakistan before featuring in England’s first T20 win against Pakistan alongside Hampshire skipper James Vince. And the 21-year old is hopeful he can continue his promising form when he heads to South-Africa later on this week:

“I’ve never been there myself personally, but from what I’ve heard it’s brilliant place to go so I’m looking forward to getting out there and representing England and playing cricket again because I’ve missed it over Christmas with our time off.

“I don’t think their team will differ too much, but there’s likely to be a few changes just like the England team. We’ve been playing an aggressive brand of cricket in the Test Series so hopefully we can take that momentum into the one-day series.”

A tough one-day and T20 series against one of the strongest teams in the world, South Africa, is up next for Topley and England in what will be the Hampshire seamer’s last opportunity to impress ahead of the forthcoming T20 World Cup:

“It’s somewhere that I really want to be and it would be a massive honour to represent England at the World Cup in a cricket loving nation like India and I can’t wait to find out if I’m in the squad or not. Fingers crossed everything goes well in South Africa and I’ll be on the plane!”

Questioned on his long-term ambitions, Topley clearly has aspirations to play for England in all formats. However, he’s admitted there’s a lot of hard work to come before he can start thinking about playing the longest format for his country:

“I’d love to play test cricket, but that’s way in the future to be honest. I’m probably not strong enough for it just yet. Quite often for bowlers my age, they don’t last for too long in the Test area before they have a serious injury.

“My long term goal is to be the first left-armer to take 100 Test wickets for England because nobody has ever done that before and hopefully my time will come.”