{"id":9792,"date":"2009-11-05T13:30:47","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T13:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2009\/11\/05\/mahmood-relishing-england-battle\/"},"modified":"2009-11-05T13:30:47","modified_gmt":"2009-11-05T13:30:47","slug":"mahmood-relishing-england-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2009\/11\/05\/mahmood-relishing-england-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahmood relishing England battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>\u2018I\u2019m a better bowler now\u2019, says Lancashire fast bowler<\/h3>\n<div><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" hspace=\"10\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"180\" height=\"275\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/SajidMahmood_180x232.jpg\"\/>SAJID Mahmood has revealed he is ready to challenge himself with the aim of becoming a regular for the England cricket team.<\/strong> <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Mahmood earned an international recall for England\u2019s forthcoming tour of South Africa after more than two years on the sidelines. The Lancashire bowler is expected to feature in the limited -overs leg of the two-and-a-half-month tour following a scintillating season with his county side. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The 27-year-old acknowledged the difficulty he faces in cementing a regular England place bearing in mind the quality of the opposition. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWhile I was pleased to be selected, it will now be even harder to get into the starting XI and stay there. There is even more hard work ahead,\u201d Mahmood said. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cSouth Africa is a tough tour. They are right up there in the rankings in both Test and one-day cricket &#8211; they are a really good side. It will be difficult but I am pleased to be here as it gives me the chance to see where I am with my game. The step up from county cricket to internationals is big but I want to challenge myself.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Mahmood goes into the tour full of confidence following a successful 2009 domestic season with Lancashire. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>He hailed the influence of Lancashire coach Peter Moores even though the former England team director overlooked the fast bowler during his tenure.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cI bowled pretty well for Lancashire this summer &#8211; it was probably the best season I have had. All the hard work with Peter Moores, my coach at Lancashire, and Kevin Shine at Loughborough has paid off,\u201d Mahmood added.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cI&#8217;m a better bowler than when I last played for England. I am more consistent now. The main thing I have been working on is having a game plan and sticking to it.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWhen I last played for England I used to just bowl quick without having a solid game plan. The drawback of bowling quick is that you can be wayward.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cI am physically and mentally stronger now too. In the past if the batsman got on top of me then I would lose it. I would then bowl too aggressively. I know to stick to my game plan now. I&#8217;m more relaxed.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>England begin their tour of South Africa on 13 November. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018I\u2019m a better bowler now\u2019, says Lancashire fast bowler SAJID Mahmood has revealed he is ready to challenge himself with the aim of becoming a regular for the England cricket team. &#13; Mahmood earned an international recall for England\u2019s forthcoming tour of South Africa after more than two years on the sidelines. The Lancashire bowler [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}