Sam Billings hopes the IPL 2021 will help in T20 World Cup preparation.
England wicket-keeper batsman Sam Billings has recently shared that the upcoming edition of the India Premier League (IPL) could possibly provide a platform to prepare for the T20 World Cup which is slated to take place later this year. However, he is well aware that he will get a limited chance due to the strong squad in the Delhi Capitals.
Notably, the 29-year-old was bought by Delhi Capitals for Rs 2 crore at the mini-auction last month in Chennai as well.
“You look at the squad that Delhi have, and especially the overseas options: you could go with any combination and it would be a successful one,” Billings told ‘ESPNCricinfo’.
“The competition for places is phenomenal: they obviously got to the final last year, so game time might be limited, but it comes back to the point of preparing for a World Cup and giving myself the best chance in these conditions to prepare for that,” he further added.
‘Who is this kid?’: Sam Billings on Rishabh Pant
Delhi Capitals, who had finished as runners up in the last edition, would love to start from there and expect to have a better result this season as well.
While last year, they have the combination of South African pacers Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and big-hitter of West Indies Shimron Hetmyer for overseas players’ spots, this year they have added former Australia captain Steve Smith, England duo – Tom Curran and Sam Billings into the squad as well.
However, Sam Billings also recalled an incident of the past when he was a part of the Delhi franchise way back in 2016 and 2017. He recalled when he first time saw the flamboyant Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.
“With Pant, I played with him for 2 years when I was in Delhi. I turned to Rahul Dravid and asked ‘who is this kid?’ “He was smacking Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Morris, Rabada everywhere in the open net.
I was just thinking ‘this is unbelievable!’ and that year he lit up. It’s been great to see him evolve as a cricketer and to be in the same team as him again would be great,” Sam Billings revealed.
Meanwhile, the right-handed batsman is ready to play with India spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, who claimed 32 and 27 wickets respectively in the recently-concluded four-match Test series against England and has been in a prolific form as well.
