MELBOURNE: England captain Jos Buttler has paid compliments to Pakistan’s fast bowling attack on the eve of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final by declaring some of their quicks will finish their careers among the best pace bowlers the country has ever produced.
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The ICC quoted Jos Buttler rating the current batch so high that he believes many will finish their careers among the best fast bowlers from Pakistan.
He was quoted on Saturday at MCG ground as having said “They are an excellent team and have a long history of producing quality fast bowlers, and the team we are up (on Sunday) against is no different.”
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Jos Buttler said “I am sure some of the guys we will go up against will go down at the end of their careers as some of the best bowlers Pakistan have ever produced and that’s a huge part of why they have got to a World Cup final.”
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He said he used to dream about getting the chance to hold the World Cup trophy aloft when he was growing up in England and the dynamic opener gets the opportunity to make that dream a reality in his first ICC tournament as captain.
“You certainly have a few dreams about that kind of thing and it really links back to your time as a kid and the kind of stuff you would be doing in the back garden with your brother and sister and pretending to lift the trophy and that kind of thing,” he recalled, adding that “now to be able to have that opportunity to have a chance to live that kind of thing out is incredibly special.”
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Buttler said England’s recent series victory in Pakistan will have little bearing on Sunday’s result, given conditions expected in Melbourne will be vastly different to what they experienced on the sub-continent during the seven T20Is against Babar Azam’s side.
“We have played against them a lot recently but that was in very different conditions,” Buttler noted. “Even though we have played each other in quite a few games, here in Melbourne is going to be a bit different to the series in Pakistan.
“We know we are up against an excellent team and that is what you expect in a World Cup final. “We will focus on them a bit and on us a lot to ensure we turn up tomorrow and give the best account of ourselves.”
