England vs New Zealand: Debutant quick bowler Matthew Potts is un-English in some ways

Aaqib Javed, former Pakistan bowler and the coach of the PSL crew Lahore Qalandars, was shocked when the phrase got here by the supervisor that Matthew Potts, the brand new back-up quick bowler that they had signed for simply couple of weeks and who didn’t play a sport, had a wierd request. “Would you allow me to stay on for the rest of the tournament? I just want to learn.”

“Koi zaroorat nahi thi usko (there was no need for him) but the fact that he asked and that he stayed said something about the boy. He was like a sponge, kept asking the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Harris Rauf and me about the nuances of fast bowling: scrambled seam, reverse swing, and feedback on his hit-the-deck style that he bowls,”

Javed tells The Indian Express on the night when Pottsy, as Javed calls him, ran by New Zealand with a four-for on his debut. If not for a cramp, he might properly have had a five-for and he got here again on the second day to take away Kane Williamson for the second time within the sport.

What a debut Matthew Potts is having!

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He will get the prized scalp of the New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson each occasions on this Test 🔥#WTC23 | #ENGvNZ | https://t.co/MlW5cS6Gro pic.twitter.com/rFtJ42pTR3

— ICC (@ICC) June 3, 2022

The very first thing that struck Javed was Potts’ health. “Very very fit. Seems to be a guy who can run hard all day. And his bowling style — that hitting the deck hard — is going to help him beyond English conditions as well. He kept picking the brain on how to bowl on dry pitches, how he can do something with the ball to create chances. Ball ko kaisey banana hai (how to work the ball for reverse).”

The query “how to trouble the batsman when there isn’t much happening on the pitch” brings amusing from Neil Killeen, Durham bowling coach who has labored with Potts because the U-14s.

“The answer to that question is what has got him to the England Test team, now,” Killeen tells this newspaper, on the morning of the second day’s play. “No doubt, he must be after James Anderson and Stuart Broad now to pick up all the tricks they have to offer.”

“Sometime last season, his first-class game went up a level. What pleases me is all of this has come through sheer hard work and ambition. He isn’t here just on “natural” ability. As in, he has exactly labored on all elements and retains working onerous,” Killeen says.

On air, Michael Atherton spoke about how Potts “hurries the batsman, hits the bat hard”. The man who took out Williamson and others by hitting the deck onerous and nibbling it again or getting it to straighten as soon as was the common English bowler who would float it full and search for some swing.

“He wished to alter that. We wished to alter that to make him efficient for pitches the place there wasn’t that type of assist. Slowly, we began to alter his fashion; he’s so open to studying and trusts me that he went alongside for the trip.

“And now he, as you say, is almost un-English in the way he hits the deck. Bit Australian, you say?!” Laughter once more. “The ball that shapes away from the right-hander would be his stock ball but his main weapon is the heavy-seam ball.”

MATTY POTTS YOU CAN’T DO THIS ON YOUR DEBUT!!!

3-6!!!! #ENGvNZ

— Ben Stokes’s Barmy Army (@TheBarmyArmy) June 2, 2022

Potts additionally troubled Tom Blundell and a few others within the first innings together with his wobble-seam ball. At occasions, it could reduce in, because it did to take out Blundell, and at occasions it could go on straight if not form away.

Blundell was late on a ball that rapped him on his pad and which he reversed by DRS. But then got here one other such supply after a few straighteners and this time he was bowled.

“Until last season, he was regarded as a big white-ball prospect. He can wobble-seam, he can bowl the slower ones, yorkers, use the bouncer intelligently, and cutters too,” Killeen says. “Now everything is coming along well.”

Killeen listens keenly when it’s shared that Aaquib thinks Potts can enhance his tempo in a 12 months or so. “Absolutely. Right now, I can say he can maintain intensity throughout the day. One of the main reasons Stokes likes him, he is the Durham captain after all.”

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In a latest county sport, the place Stokes hit a document variety of sixes, it was Potts, enjoying by a aspect pressure, who exploded with the ball on the fourth day with a seven-for to run by Glamorgan. “He could have if he wanted not done it as England selection was around the corner, but that’s the kind of guy he is,” Stokes had stated on eve of the Test match.

On the second day, Nasser Hussain let some shock slip by his voice when he recounted how he noticed Potts push the fielders to deep sq. leg on his personal, with out consulting the captain, and bounced at Daryll Mitchell. “On his debut ..” Hussain would mutter.

“He is not your quietly confident fella, he is very confident but doesn’t get into the ‘arrogant confidence’ line. He has an aura about him. A presence,” Killeen says about that pluckiness.

“When he came into the Durham side, he would be in the ears of even the seniors about how to bowl, or bat or field! We had to sit him down and tell him in half-jest, “mate, first establish your place in the team!”.

Ash Thorpe, a membership teammate, informed BBC concerning the trait. “I’m a big bloke, 17 or 18 stone, but aged about 15 during a rain delay Matty said, ‘I am going to fight everyone in the changing room and I’m going to start with you, Ash’.”

“It was nothing more than him wanting to prove a point – the alpha male inside him. He is cheeky in a non-offensive way but has always had that drive, chip, and confidence in his own ability and he always had that belief he was going to go somewhere in the game.”

On the morning of the second day, Killeen had a protracted dialog with Potts. “Just to see how he feels. He is obviously very happy with the way he has gone on debut. I just told him, just be yourself, keep doing what you are doing. There will be good and bad days, this is Test cricket but you are on the right path.”

Or within the phrases of Aaquib, “Lambi race ka ghoda hai (one for the long haul) if England know how to use him. He is different from the other England bowlers; so he can be the one who can complete that line-up, just what they need.”