Carberry ready to deal with pressure

Cricket365
August 27, 2013

Batsman Michael Carberry will keep the same gameplan that brought him a fine stretch of form at county level this season, when he debuts for England in the limited-overs series against Australia this week.

The uncapped Carberry was named in the Twenty20 International squad earlier this month, and on Tuesday graduated to the ODI fold too – thanks largely to 471 runs at an average of 47.10 and 114.32 strike-rate in a dozen 2013 Yorkshire Bank 40 appearances for Durham.

"That's making the step up now, it's all about dealing with the pressure and hopefully I can do that," he told <i>Sky Sports News</i>. "I don't see that I'm going to change anything much from what I've done before.

"I'm pretty experienced now so I'm just going to stick to my gameplan and what has worked for me over the last couple of years and hopefully it's good enough. Six weeks ago it was beyond my wildest dreams, I guess. It's nice to be in the England fold and I'm thoroughly looking forward to the series ahead."

The hard-hitting Hampshire opener is looking forward to debuting at his homeground, with the Rose Bowl in Southampton set to host the first T20I on Thursday. He struck a record 100 not out, which spanned just 66 balls and featured 11 boundaries and three sixes, against Lancashire at the venue in August.

"It has been a very kind ground to me over many years and it will be great to play for England in front of my home crowd. I've had tons of support since the news came out that I got picked so I'm really looking forward to it," concluded the 32-year-old Carberry.