England fast bowler Reece Topley is bracing himself for the balance of power to shift towards the batters when the defending champions make their Super 8 bow against co-hosts West Indies. After a group stage in which bowlers held sway for most parts, the 30-year-old is eager to embrace the challenge of adaptability that’ll be required on a St Lucia surface that only two days ago saw the West Indies plunder 218 against Afghanistan.
“It’s nice that there’s obviously new conditions to try and adapt to but I think it’s going to make for a pretty good cricket wicket regardless,” Topley said on the eve of the game. “I think the wickets have been kind to bowlers so far so it might be time to take a bit of medicine and it might be in the business of problem-solving now and things are a bit more complicated for us as a bowler but the mission statement is pretty much the same.”
While Topley admitted that a batting-friendly wicket at the Daren Sammy national cricket stadium would demand a relook at bowling strategies as well as bowler evaluation metrics, there were still areas to attack the opposition, particularly with the new-ball and the cross-breeze aided swing. “Yeah, that’s probably a complex way to look at it. I think fundamentally it’s still the same, it’s still trying to nullify someone’s strengths and I think maybe now you could probably say that when they’re going towards the end maybe a single is a win now as a bowler whereas last week you could be a bit more attacking and try and be a bit more aggressive with field placements and whatever,” Topley said.
“But this week it might be a bit different obviously playing here there’s a different pace in the wicket I think I’ve noticed it’s a lot more bouncy as well but then similarly I suppose that’s an advantage that we can try and exploit that as well in the powerplay trying to get some nicks and things like that.
“Yeah, breeze is obviously welcomed as a swing bowler. It definitely makes the ball swing for a little bit longer, maybe a little bit more. But then equally there’s a side that’s hard to shut down. The ball certainly flies when you go that way. So, I think the batsmen are going to equally try to exploit it as much as the bowlers. So, it’s going to be a good contest, almost like a game of chess out there.”
When the Rovman Powell-led side downed Afghanistan two nights ago at this very stadium, they were cheered on by a very racuous home crowd. England didn’t play at this venue during their white-ball tour of the Caribbean late last year but that was a series marked by significant support for the away team, something that’s unlikely to be the case this time around and will be another factor to contend with for Topley & Co. along with the change in conditions. “Yeah, I think that’s something we’ve already brought up is we’ve not played in front of an opposition crowd for a long time now,” he said.
“Even when we came here in November, it was very well supported with English fans. Yeah, hopefully we can put on a good show regardless of the outcome. It’s going to be amazing, I’m sure it’s going to be a night that hopefully we all look back on in our career that was quite a poignant night in this World Cup and helping us to achieve our goal.”
On a personal front, Topley is hoping to leave an indelible footprint in what he hopes is a successful title defence for England. The 30-year-old’s career has been blighted by several injuries including multiple stress fractures of the back. He missed England’s T20 World Cup win in 2022 with an ankle issue suffered in training in the week before the tournament and last year was ruled out of the ODI World Cup after breaking a finger while fielding off his own bowling.
“Yeah, obviously injuries are not by design or anything like that, they kind of happen,” he said. “I’m quite comfortable that in the past it was nothing down to me, I sort of crossed every box, crossed every T, dotted every I and all that. I left no stone unturned and things just happened, it’s part of the game. I’ve just kept going with that and luckily, I’m here still in one piece and it’s the Super 8s. I think it’s a really exciting week hopefully like I just said there’s going to be a time later in life that you look back at this week of being a really poignant and successful week that helped us achieve winning a World Cup out here.”
