England fast bowler Brydon Carse is targeting a place in the Test team after his man-of-the-match display in Thursday night’s first T20 against New Zealand.
Carse claimed an impressive three for 23 on his T20 debut as England won by seven wickets with six overs to spare in Durham.
South African by birth, Carse has been with Durham since 2014, and the 28-year-old was in contention for a Test debut early this summer before injury ruled him out.
That spot went to Josh Tongue, who is now injured himself, but a Test debut seems likely for Carse next year and he may get called up as soon as the tour of India, which starts in January.
“Over the last year I’ve had massive ambitions to play for England,” Carse said. “I was unfortunate in the winter to pick up an injury and it’s always been my number one focus to try and play for England again.
“With the amount of white-ball cricket in all the different leagues around the world at the moment, players have got a lot of opportunity to play a lot of cricket.
“I think it just comes down to what your ambition is, what you want to do as a cricketer. I’ve still got a lot of ambition to play red-ball cricket and to play Test cricket for England.”
Dawid Malan and Harry Brook shared a brilliant 54-run partnership to fire England to victory and strengthen their World Cup claims.
Malan endured a difficult Hundred campaign, while Brook was left out of the provisional squad.
“He played brilliantly,” said captain Jos Buttler of Brook. “He’s a class player. No one is saying they don’t rate him or he isn’t a superstar.
“We are really blessed with some top players, and that has been the case in white-ball cricket for some time now. He’s been a key part of the T20 side for the best part of a year, or a little bit more now, and he’s going to be a really key player for us in this format for the next 10 years.
“Dawid Malan is a class player and has been for a long period of time.”
