‘The Australia team is a cut-throat environment’

Australia

Australia fast bowler Jackson Bird knows he has to perform well straight out of the gate if he's picked to play in New Zealand, because the pace stocks are so strong Down Under that a lackluster effort will see you dropped.

Bird was called up to go to New Zealand, along with uncapped Chadd Sayers, because of the swinging conditions, and Bird knows that he has to do well from the start if he wants to keep his place when the injured players return.

Bird told cricket.com.au: "Being in the Australian team is a cut-throat environment; you've got to perform straight away in whatever conditions you're playing in simply because of the wealth of talent we've got going around.

"I'm not going to try to put any extra pressure on myself if I play.

"In conditions that are seaming around I try to keep things as simple as possible, just try to stand the seam up and put the ball in the right area and the ball usually does the rest for you.

"I've played in a lot of seaming conditions down in Tassie and I think that suits me well."   

Bird added that he understood the selectors going for bowlers who suited various conditions, and did not expect, as a swing bowler, to be picked for spinning tracks, for example.

He said: "You need players who suit different types of conditions. There's no point in picking someone like me to bowl in India where you need guys to bowl 145kph-plus.

"I think it's a good thing that they're picking players for certain conditions and it's beneficial to the team as well."

Australia latest-news

Latest