News

We Can Go On Improving Says Jonathan

26 June 2012

Jonathan Batty is optimistic that Gloucestershire can start building a winning run in the Friends Life t20 with victory over Warwickshire at Bristol tomorrow night (5.30pm start).

The experienced wicketkeeper helped the team recover from a disappointing defeat by Worcestershire to beat Northants at the County Ground before having the match with Welsh Dragons at Cardiff on Saturday washed out.

The same fate befell the Somerset fixture at Bristol so Gloucestershire have four points from as many games and will move into a challenging position if they can overcome Warwickshire.

Jonathan told this website: “I am confident we can do well in the T20. We had a poor result at Worcester, but that was our first game in the competition after the Somerset washout and it gave us a kick up the backside while there was still plenty of time to put things right.

“A lot of our players don’t have much experience of Twenty20 cricket and I don’t think some of them quite realised how much pressure you are under.

“In T20 you are always in the firing line as a batsman, bowler or fielder and there is no time to find your feet in a game.

“The ball is coming hard at you in the field and you have to take your chances, which is something we failed to do at Worcester.

“Since then we have talked about being ready at any moment for anything to happen and it was a good game to get behind us so early in our campaign.

“We worked hard to put things right and saw the benefit against Northants when we played more like we had done in the CB40 earlier in the season.”

Jonathan has a key role to play as wicketkeeper. “You are the pivotal person in the field and need to help the captain as much as possible because there is not a lot of time to think things through,” he said.

“Tactically he often has to go with gut instinct so I try to arrange the field and get the angles right, which is crucial in T20 cricket.

“You have to make sure your boundary fielders are in the exactly the right positions and that your best fielders are in the places where the ball is most likely to be hit.

“Some guys have stronger arms than others and some are more adept at throwing themselves around. I try to stay on top of things to help the skipper and being relatively experienced is a help.”

Jonathan is currently first choice wicketkeeper for Gloucestershire in all competitions, having relinquished that position to Richard Coughtrie in LV=County Championship cricket last season.

He has no complaints about that decision. “No one has a right to play and last year I let myself down, failing to score enough runs. Richard took the gloves off me for that reason,” he said.

“I worked very hard during the winter to get my place back and now that it has happened it is up to me to put in the performances to maintain a position in the side in all forms of the game.

“Whoever is playing better out of me and Richard should play. It’s as simple as that. I’m enjoying be back in the side and loving the T20 as much as I do any other competition.”

• Previous
• Next