With Kohli just a call away, Haseeb piles on runs in his quest for an England return

New Indian Express

3 days ago

"Hopefully, obviously the selection part of it is not in our hands," Hameed, whose family has roots in Gujarat, said. "Ultimately, you know, I've got a job to do when I play for Nottinghamshire. Obviously, I'm captain as well. So when I'm at Notts, I'm fully immersed in trying to do the best I can for the team and contribute and know that, you know, those England ambitions, which are always there and always will be there, will be looked after hopefully by me putting in performances for Nottinghamshire. So yeah, the fact that I've been able to do that in the last couple of years is pleasing.
Haseeb attributed his and England's approach for their downfall during the Ashes 2021-22 and admitted there has been a big cultural change ever since. But he affirmed he made the changes in his batting style and approach even before the Bazball era. "I was asked the other day whether I had made changes as a result of the current leadership. I can honestly say I made changes before Stokesy took over as captain and McCullum came in as coach. After that Australia tour, one of the learnings for me was finding a way to put pressure on the best bowlers in the world. Because they don't miss and you have to try and make them miss. I certainly started making changes to my game from then. I guess it coincided with this new leadership in the England team. I guess the one thing that looks really strong about the current leadership is they back players. So the players that they tend to select, they're then happy to give them quite a long run at it. I think as a player that's a really good place to be. As a player you just want someone that's going to back you through good times and bad times."
He opined he was decent with the willow before that horrific Australia tour and the current regime of backing players should be the case to make sure they get enough opportunities. "I guess in my case, at the moment, I feel like I've had one really bad, tough tour in international cricket in Australia, in the Ashes. So, it's magnified. But the six Test matches in the lead up to that, I felt like went okay, both against India at home and away. So in kind of challenging conditions and challenging circumstances. But yeah, one bad tour and I guess what this current leadership has shown is this current regime kind of select players even though they might have had a bad tour. And sometimes you see the results of that."