However many runs I get, I don't think I’ll keep that spot in England squad: Sam Billings

England was up against Australia in the first fixture of the three-match ODI series in Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester on Friday (September 11). Batting first Australia had racked up a target of 294 on the board at the loss of 9 wickets.

Chasing 295 in the 50-over game, hosts were reduced to a paltry total of 57/4 at the beginning of the 17th over after losing their first four wickets of Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler cheaply. 

The match looked like a cakewalk for the Aussies but this is when Sam Billings and Jonny Bairstow stuck around to stitch a much-needed partnership of 113 runs. Billings played a remarkable inning of 118 off 110 balls including 14 fours and 2 sixes. Bairstow also supported his counterpart by smashing 84 runs. Though England lost the match by 19 runs, Billings made his claim for attaining a permanent spot in England’s middle-order. 

Despite the stellar performance with the bat, Sam is aware that it would be difficult to make a place for himself in England’s Playing XI. It was the absence of Ben Stokes that made the captain Eoin Morgan go with Billings for batting in the middle-order. Ben Stokes has taken a break from the series against Australia to be with his family in New Zealand. In spite of being aware of the tough competition, Billings is hopeful of being a regular feature in playing XI and is looking forward to scoring runs for his country. 

“Ben Stokes isn’t here and I don’t think, however many runs I get, that I’ll keep that spot. All I can do is stake a claim. Especially building towards the T20 stuff. There is a slot in that late-to-middle order. Hopefully, this will keep pushing my case in that format. Loss of form and injury – as I found out the hard way – can happen. As long as you are putting yourself in the right position to be the next cab off the rank, you never know when these opportunities will arise,” ESPNCricinfo quoted Billings as saying.

At that point in time, we had zero chance: Sam Billings 

Further in the interaction, the 29-year-old reflected on his feelings after seeing the collapse of the top-order. Sam revealed that while walking to the match field he felt terrible and wasn’t very confident about putting up a tough fight with the Australian bowlers. However, as he and Bairstow started building the partnership, he gained energy and could feel a change in the mindset of the opposition. 

“Australia reminded me I was 11 of 32 pretty consistently. At that point in time, we had zero chance. I felt terrible as well. I wasn’t fluent at all. But then you look at the other end and Jonny is struggling as well and he’s one of the most fluent openers in world cricket. No one really got going,” Billings said.

“But you could see Australia’s mindset definitely change when we started to get that partnership going. The energy all of a sudden went from very positive to just slightly more intensity and thinking that we are getting ourselves back into the game. Who knows, if Jonny and I had batted for another five overs; if Moeen Ali and I could have got a bit of a partnership together… Yes, it was a huge ask. But in that situation it’s a matter of trying to take the game deep and give us some sort of chance,” he added.