I Was Jealous Of Not Being There - Liam Plunkett On His Time Away From The England Team

Veteran England pacer Liam Plunkett recalls his time out of the England team early in his career. The seamer made his international debut in 2005 and was supposed to be the next big thing in English cricket, but frequent injuries and loss of form meant he was pushed to the sidelines; he didn’t play a single Test between 2007 and 2014.

Liam Plunkett then moved from Durham to Yorkshire where he revived his career and he did it emphatically in white-ball cricket. The right-arm speedster was one of the best bowlers of his side from 2015 to 2019 in ODI cricket leading up to the World Cup.

He has now moved to the US, but vividly recalled the difficult times when he sat away from the national time and was tussling it out for Durham Seconds.

“I don’t think I watched any England games during that time(when Plunkett was struggling in County cricket and was in the reserves for Durham around 2011-2012) because I was jealous of not being there. I might have watched the odd highlight, but I’d never sit down and watch a game. Now it’s the opposite and I’m more than happy to watch England. I’ll even get up early in the US to watch them,” Liam Plunkett told The Cricketer.

I was disappointed with how it all finished: Liam Plunkett

Liam Plunkett was unceremoniously casted aside by the ECB after his heroics in the World Cup – he finished with 11 wickets across 7 games while bowling at a brilliant economy of 4.86; the pacer returned with figures of 3/42 in the final versus New Zealand, including the wicket of Kane Williamson. However, despite such a brilliant show, Liam Plunkett was dropped from the national side as England built towards the 2023 World Cup, by the time he will be 38.

The Yorkshire-born now plies his trade in short-format leagues and is currently representing Welsh Fire in The Hundred.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss England, You practice and play with them constantly, watch them improve, and that inspires you to get better. I consider pretty much all of the England guys my friends and then all of a sudden, you’re not a part of that picture anymore. You go from spending months away with these people and going out for dinner together and things like that to it stopping.

He said he was disappointed with his harsh exit, but is happy that his last game in England shirt turned out to be a victory in the World Cup final.

“England is the highest team I can play for and I was disappointed with how it all finished, but I can take my last game for them being a win in a World Cup final. I’d definitely have taken that when I was playing forDurham seconds a few years before,” he concluded.

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