Australian all-rounder Ashton Agar on Wednesday (July 8) admitted that he finds it tough coming down the order and playing shots straightaway with usually only a few deliveries to make an impact in a T20I match, ahead of the upcoming five-match T20I series against the West Indies.
Agar's primary role is with the ball in the Australian T20I team, but he has been also working hard on his batting since the contribution with the bat will provide balance to the side and increase his value too.
As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Agar said: “It's tough, I find it quite hard, if I'm being honest, coming in down the order. It's a tough ask for anyone, but that's the role I'm there to play and I've been working really hard to try and get better at it, and I've identified a few areas.”
He continued, “Playing the pull shot is a really important shot to have and getting better at hitting slower balls. You don't often get two balls in the same spot, the same speed, there's a lot of variation coming your way and you have to make the most of those deliveries. But it's not always so easy.”
On being asked what he thinks of bowling with the new ball, the spinner said: “For me, I quite like doing it because it means my game is growing. As a cricketer, I'm just trying to be as adaptable and usable as possible, get as good as I can at everything I can. That's how I look at it.”
The left-hander also stressed on the need not to put themselves under pressure by the challenges in the T20 cricket and take it ball by ball.
Agar added, “The really hard part is you are looking at the field and it's really easy to think 'he might bowl one of these three deliveries' so you've got that in your head, the pressure could be on. There are plenty of different things you could think about but the best thing you can ever do is watch the ball as hard as you can.”
He signed off, “That's the reason you practice hard and train everything so once you are in a game all you have to do is focus on watching the ball and it seems all that practice takes over intuitively.”
(With ANI Inputs)
