Jordan: Competition for places driving England performance

Chris Jordan England South Africa PA

England fast bowler Chris Jordan admits places in the team are being hotly contested right now but the competition is driving their performance levels to new heights.

England’s competition for places

Jordan became the Three Lions’ joint top wicket-taker in the shortest format of the game after grabbing the scalp of Quinton de Kock in the second T20I against South African on Sunday.

Despite this, his position in the starting lineup is far from secure, especially when it comes to the 50-over team and he is virtually out of contention for the Test team.

“The competition is really good fun,” he said, according to Cricinfo. “In the warm-ups, everyone wanted to get each other out or smash each other for six. It raises the level of everyone’s game in general.

“You see the way Sam [Curran] is striking the ball at the minute, it is pretty unbelievable – he has come back from the IPL with a lot of confidence.

“We are pulling in the same direction, trying to make the team and squad better and those types of things get you ready for series like this.”

Accolades not important to Jordan

While Jordan admits he’s happy to have become one of the most successful bowlers for England in T20 Internationals, he claims his main focus is on contributing to the team performance.

“It’s obviously a nice milestone to have – but as long as I am doing my job day in and day out and the team are winning games and series I am more than happy. If the accolades come with that, so be it.

“It’s good to win the series – that’s what we set out to do first and foremost. We put a lot of things right in the bowling department in the second game, restricting South Africa on what we thought was a pretty decent wicket. With our batting line-up, we feel most par scores are 15 or 20 short.

“I think Dawid’s innings shows why he is at No 1 right now. He didn’t come out and blast it – he soaked up a lot of pressure and assessed the situation.

“He realised he needed to bat to the end if we were going to have a real solid chance of winning the game. He got out to a fantastic catch but he got the job done.”

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