NEWSPlaying his maiden T20 World Cup, Sam Curran drew confidence from his consistent run in the England side with an aim to adapt to all situations to provide the bowling group with more options. The 24-year-old sizzled with a five-wicket haul and paved the way for England's five-wicket win against Afghanistan in their T20 World Cup opener.
"I guess I feel having had a consistent run in the side has really given me confidence, as well, going into game by game, and like I said, it's a great bowling group to be a part of," Curran told reporters.
Asked if he was enjoying death bowling Curran said, "Yeah, I think anytime you play and you take on those tough situations, that's when you want to be involved. Just trying to be as adaptable as possible, giving the bowling group loads of different options, and there will be some days where it doesn't come off, which I'm very, very aware of."
England bowlers were superb with the ball as they bundled out Afghanistan for 112. Curran's five-wicket haul is also the best bowling figures by an English bowler in T20I matches.
The left-armer said he has tweaked his alignment a bit. "To be honest, I haven't really changed massively in terms of maybe it's just a bit of alignment stuff, but maybe it's in Australia they like to crank up the speed guns."
England will take on Ireland on Wednesday before crossing sword with Australia, who lost their opener.
"Ireland is going to be another very tricky game. We'll focus probably just on Wednesday's game, but like you said, there's no hiding that Friday is going to be a pretty epic game against Australia at the MCG.
"If we win there, it will be obviously great for us, and I guess it might put us in a tricky position."
Afghanistan need to improve in all areas: Trott
Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott sought improvement from his side in all departments. The batters struggled against England while the fielding was also below standard.
"Well, I think we need to improve in all areas really if we can. Obviously, the bowling was good tonight, but we need to get better with regards to our powerplay and batting. We have some talented players who hopefully can hit their straps in the next few games and put the opposition under pressure."
While the bowlers did well while defending a modest total, the fielding was poor with several misfields and as many as two catches being dropped. "Then our fielding, we saw the evidence and the way that England caught the ball. All their chances were taken. I think they had a very difficult dropped chance at point, and that was it.
"Especially when we're trying to defend small targets like that, your fielding has got to be on point. I would have liked less dropped catches, less fumbles, less misfields if possible. The way that we bowled, the spinners in particular were really, really good, so there are some things to take away from the game.
"But we just needed a few more extra runs, especially because a lot of the teams, the opposition, whenever they're going to win the toss, they're going to chase, so batting first we're going to have to get better at assessing conditions and putting scores on boards."
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