Lauren Bell Focuses on Aggressive Bowling Tactics for Pakistan Series and T20 World Cup
Lauren Bell, England’s fast bowler, is committed to maintaining an aggressive approach, both in the ongoing T20I series against Pakistan and the upcoming T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
After shaking off initial rustiness at Edgbaston, Bell’s focus is on targeting the stumps, a strategy she believes will be crucial on Bangladesh’s slow, low wickets.
After overcoming a shaky opening spell at Edgbaston on Saturday to help her side secure a 53-run victory with figures of 3 for 22, Lauren Bell has pledged to “attack the stumps” as the standard tactic, both against Pakistan for the balance of England’s Twenty20 International series and as a way to counter Bangladesh’s slow, low wickets in this winter’s T20 World Cup.
After England’s April tour of New Zealand ended, Bell had not played competitive cricket. Her opening over of 12 runs included two wides and two boundaries, more runs than Pakistan had given up while taking England’s first four wickets of the game.
To help prevent the possibility of a major upset, she bounced back quickly at the end of the powerplay, dismissing Gull Feroza for 17. She then struck again in each of her next two one-off overs. Speaking on the eve of this Friday’s second Twenty20 International in Northampton, Bell conceded that England’s performance in the opening game had been imperfect, but he maintained that their execution, not their intention, had been at fault.
“The fact that we were 11 for 4 and still got to 160 shows the depth in our team,” Bell stated. “We weren’t satisfied with the way either innings began. But the fact that we were able to rally and, ultimately, win by a score of about fifty runs, simply goes to demonstrate the strength and resilience of the team.
“That was my first game of the summer, so I was obviously a bit nervous and maybe a little bit rusty,” she stated. This winter, I played a lot of cricket, so after returning from New Zealand, we thought it would be best for me to get a little more sleep. I’m incredibly lucky to be able to play all three formats, but there’s still so much to play that I can’t get into every game.”
Bell was certain that the players would not let a difficult day undermine the aggressive mindset that their head coach, Jon Lewis, has instilled in them over the last two winters, especially with their focus already shifting to the T20 World Cup in October.
“That approach will never change, and I don’t think the messaging will ever change,” she stated. Jon’s message will always be to take the game on, and I don’t think he’ll stray from that. that even while we will undoubtedly occasionally fail at playing the way we want to, we won’t give up on our preferred style of play.”
Bell’s emergence as England’s attack leader under Lewis’ direction started during the summer Ashes, when she took 14 wickets in seven matches of the multi-format series, including crucial periods in the T20I leg that tied the series. And because of the club management’s continued faith in her, even the most painful moment of her campaign—a 26-run loss to Georgia Wareham at Southampton—has now been written off as experience.
“The Ashes was a little hazy at first. Clearly, I played one game that was a really challenging learning experience,” she remarked. “I guess I do take a lot of confidence from it, but as I got over it, I realized that I had a bit more responsibility in all three forms, and Heather [Knight] was passing the ball to me at really crucial times.
Also Read: England’s Dominating Victory over New Zealand in First Ever Women’s T20 World Cup
“Knowing that you have everyone’s support and encouragement when you step onto the cricket pitch is the best feeling in the world, especially when your captain and coach are behind you.” Jon is quite clear about my responsibilities, which are to lead and end the innings. I was clearly in and out of the team a lot before he joined, so I feel like it’s definitely improving my game and boosting my confidence.”
This winter, Bell had to make a difficult choice when she decided to forgo her lucrative WPL contract with UP Warriorz in order to be available for the full New Zealand tour. However, she asserts that she knows where her priorities should be for the time being given the abundance of opportunities that the women’s game is offering and the generational shift that the England squad is going through.
“We have so many seamers coming through, I want to keep leading this bowling attack,” she stated. “I consider myself really lucky to have so much cricket available to me, but playing it all is just not feasible. Of course, I wanted to visit the WPL. However, I shall currently be concentrating on international cricket.”
Bell said she had no regrets about forgoing the experience, even though she knew there might have been lessons to be learned from playing on WPL grounds rather than more seam-friendly wickets in New Zealand, especially with the Bangladesh World Cup approaching.
“Obviously the girls who played in India, they got a chance to play against the best players in the world in subcontinental conditions, but we had a series in India before Christmas, and I went to the WPL the year before, so it’s not going to be completely new to me,” she explained. “Even though we’re not there yet, that doesn’t mean that I can’t start prepping for how it’s going to be in Bangladesh, and what I really need to nail on before I get there.”
Essentially, this means bowling cleanly and maintaining stumps in play – not only during the World Cup but also in the upcoming matches against Pakistan’s batting lineup.
“The main message is just to look to take wickets, and to be really attacking,” Lauren Bell stated. “Lewis wants us to consider ‘how am I going to get this player out?’ first.” It will be crucial to keep the stumps in play in Bangladesh, and a lot of pace-off might be the ideal strategy. Thus, it comes down to honing our abilities and practicing a little constancy.
“Definitely, our plan is to hit the stumps as much as possible,” she stated. “We know that we can bowl as straight as possible with any kind of lateral movement when we get to Bangladesh, and if we can do that against this [Pakistan] team, I think we’ll be right in the game.” We know what we need to do going ahead because even if I didn’t execute that in the powerplay [on Saturday], it was my first game of the summer.”
