England U19 skipper Matthew Fisher confident of leading against India

Published - 20 Jan 2017, 20:11 IST | Updated - 20 Jan 2017, 20:11 IST

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Yorkshire’s promising fast bowler Matthew Fisher will be leading the England Under 19s in a one-day series against India in Mumbai in the coming weeks. Fisher, who will be making a comeback to U-19 cricket for the first time in more than 24 months, was only 16-year-old when he made a vital contribution to an emphatic England win against favorites Indian team in Dubai in the quarter-finals of the 2014 ICC Under 19 World Cup.

He took three early wickets as the Indians tottered to 24 for 4. They bounced back to post a decent score of 221 for 8 but England did just enough to claim a three-wicket win. “That India quarter-final will stand out for me for the rest of my life,” Fisher said at the Performance Centre in Loughborough this week, after England’s latest Under-19s squad had a get-together before leaving for Mumbai on Monday.

“There was a lot of talk about their players, quite a few had played in the IPL. So it was good to get one over them in a tight run chase. The whole tournament was a great experience, just being around the lads and going further than we were expected to. We’d had quite a poor summer series against Pakistan, although we always felt like we were improving” he said.

“We got so close to beating them in the semi final. But we learned so much as a squad. If you look at our squad and the amount of players who have gone on to play for the Lions or even England – Ben Duckett, Clarkey, and lads like Haseeb Hameed, Saqib Mahmood and Tom Alsop came in the following summer. It’s really good to see” he added.

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Fisher also shared his thoughts on how the Christmas time turned the table around for him. “Being injured so much last summer I just needed to trust my body again and get bowling,” he explained. “First of all Dizzy (Jason Gillespie, who had been his coach at Yorkshire) fixed me up with the chance to play for 10 weeks in Australia before Christmas, with his old club Adelaide. Then Grav (David Graveney, the Under-19s chairman of selectors) phoned me up just before Christmas – and asked if I could be captain as well.

He concluded by saying “So I jumped at the chance really. At that stage I didn’t really know many of the players. But I’ve worked hard to get to know the lads, because it’s my job as captain to see their strengths and weaknesses. The couple of days we had in Loughborough, it’s been like I’ve known them for three or four years”.

England U-19 squad

M Fisher (Yorkshire, captain for one-day series)

M Holden (Middlesex, captain for four-day matches)

H Brook (Yorkshire)

G Bartlett (Somerset)

E Woods (Surrey)

W Jacks (Surrey)

D Rawlins (Sussex)

O Pope (Surrey, wk)

T Banton (Somerset, wk)

L Patterson-White (Nottinghamshire)

L Shaw (Somerset)