'Strong performances in IPL 2020 will help me break into England's T20 World Cup squad' - Tom Banton

England’s newest T20 star Tom Banton recently came off a successful first outing in the Big Bash League for the Brisbane Heat. His team might not have qualified for the eliminators, but his performance was admired by everyone, as he slammed three half-centuries in seven outings for the franchise.

Banton, who made his FC debut in 2018 and limited-overs debut in 2019, has accumulated 1394 runs in 45 limited-overs games at the senior level, with three centuries to his name. He came into prominence for his amazing talent to play effortless big shots in the Vitality T20 Blast’s last season and then his exploits in the T10 league earned him an IPL contract with Kolkata Knight Riders.

Tom Banton is set to don KKR jersey in IPL 2020

Banton was in midst of a little controversy recently, when former England captain Michael Vaughan said that he should forego his IPL contract and aim to play county cricket and stake a claim for the England Test team, instead of wasting his talent in T20 franchise leagues. However, the 21-year-old has confirmed that he will be playing IPL 2020 for KKR who snapped him up for INR 1 crores.

“Yes, 100 per cent (I will be playing in the Indian Premier League). When I was growing up, the IPL was definitely something I thought I’d love to do and play for England in Test cricket as well,” he was quoted as saying by Metro. He has scored 540 runs at a strike rate of 160 in the last season of T20 Blast and he sees the Indian T20 league as a chance of making it into the England squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia.

Banton has already made his England debut in T20Is, against New Zealand and has 56 runs to his name. However, his focus is on making a place for himself in the country’s team for the ICC extravaganza in October. “Definitely, I’d love to be part of the World Cup. The white-ball team seems so strong at the moment but I’d love to go. We’ve got the IPL coming up, so some strong performances there are going to help,” he added.

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