Andrew McGlashan
Jade Dernbach believes that England can overcome their difficulties in
limited-overs cricket on the subcontinent and make a strong bid to win
the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh early next year.
England won the event, their only piece of global silverware, in 2009
but never looked like defending the title in Sri Lanka last year when
they lurched through to the end of the group stages with only
victories against Afghanistan and New Zealand.
The underwhelming performance continued England’s poor record with the
white ball on the subcontinent; they were knocked of the World Cup in
the quarter-finals, lost 5-0 against India in 2011 and 3-2 in another
bilateral series in January.
Dernbach, who is supporting the Movember charity this month to raise
awareness of men’s health issues, remembers the tough experiences of
the previous World Twenty20 tournament – he played in four of the
matches and finished with an economy rate of 9.83 – but is adamant
that England are making the necessary strides under Ashley Giles and
Stuart Broad to be competitive in March.
“I think we can beat some of the best sides around in the that format,
so having the World Cup is great opportunity for us to test
ourselves,” Dernbach said. “It’s over in the subcontinent and there
have been question marks over us before, but it’s time to draw a line
under that and show what a good side we are.
“I’m excited about our Twenty20 side at the moment, we’ve had quite a
lot of success and now it’s time to show that on the world stage.”
