Young English quick, Issy Wong, very early on in her career gained massive recognition having featured in domestic and overseas leagues. Her international debut was awaited and keenly watched by many which set her up for a debut she wouldn’t have expected with high expectations.
Early this summer, Issy Wong debuted for England across all formats of the game. She last featured during England’s outings at the Commonwealth Games and now will be looking to end the summer on a high post a good show in the series against India. Before the start of the series, Issy Wong was interviewed by Suramya Kaushik from News18 Cricketnext, and below we bring the conversation to you.
On the squad missing a few senior players, Issy Wong said, “It’s another opportunity to put on the England shirt and go and play the sport that I love. So, in that point of view, it’s really exciting, It’s gonna be a big hole of Katherine but it’s an exciting opportunity for all of us younger guys to fill that hole.”
Katherine Brunt is one among the few senior plays who are set to miss the series against India and Issy Wong who’s in to fill the big boots of Katherine Brunt said, “It’s not gonna be one person fixing that hole because she’s (Katherine) a massive part of this team. With everything she’s done in the last decade, it’ll take all of us coming together to work without her but I am sure we’ve got exciting bowlers in this group so we’re going to try to fill that void.
An exciting contest is already building up 😃#ENGvIND #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/19HgvGFoUA
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Among several Indian batters, Issy Wong felt Smriti Mandhana’s wicket rightly will be a big one. The two have known each other’s game closely having played for the same, Sydney Thunder club at the Women’s Big Bash League.
Issy Wong said, “I am looking forward to bowling at Smriti. Lucky enough to play with her at Sydney Thunder. I think we go on relatively well but she sent me around the park a bit at Edgbaston in the Commonwealth Games. She’s a world-class player. We have seen, what she can do for India, in BBL, in the Hundred for Southern Brave. She’s a world-class performer and so she’ll be the biggest wicket.”
There’s always room for improvement in sports and there’s a lot bowlers and batters constantly work on and at the same time, very importantly have got to understand how well their body responds. Issy Wong on the two-pointers stated, “I am working really hard to get my shape with the ball back in the past days. It’s probably something that hasn’t been there much over the last couple of months. So, I’ve been working really hard with bowling coaches and trying to work out what that is and maybe I am in that adaptive stage in my career.”
Further added, “I am 20 and my body is still changing, getting stronger, things are changing and I need to adapt my skills to keep up with that.”
20-year-old, Issy Wong in her young international career has excellent bowling economies to show off. She holds an economy rate of 3.68 in Test match cricket, 6.14 and 6.90 in the white-ball, 50 and 20 over formats respectively. Her wickets tally see her with 3 wickets coming off a couple of innings (1 Test), 4 in the couple One-Day internationals she’s featured in and 5 in 7 T20I games with best figures of 2/46, 3/36 and 2/10 across formats respectively.
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