English opener Jason Roy believes that all-rounder Liam Livingstone will be vital cog for England in sluggish UAE condition in the T20 World Cup 2021.
On a typical slow Abu Dhabi wicket, where leg-spinner Adil Rashid was expensive and wicketless, Liam Livingstone picked two wickets with and returned with figures of 2/15 in the three overs he bowled.
He’s doing extremely well for us and holding up an average is extremely positive,” Roy said of Livingstone.
“Especially as the tournament goes on where the pitches might get a little bit harder against spin, who knows, he might have more of a role to play.”
Bowling first, England restricted Bangladesh for a total of 124 runs with top-class bowling from Tymal Mills (3/27), Liam Livingstone (2/15) and Moeen Ali (2/18). Later Jason Roy who was playing his 50th T20I game scored 61 runs to England to victory.
“Yeah, he’s been working extremely hard. It’s been great having Moeen and Rash (Rashid) on the side as well, and he learns a lot from them and Jeetan Patel, our spin coach, as well, has been giving him some words of wisdom. It’s paying off for him.”
Such was the pressure in the middle overs that Bangladesh played 52 dot balls in their innings.
“We bowled extremely well. Take nothing away from the bowlers. I don’t think we took too much of a foot wrong,” said Roy.
“We took our catches and fielded and bowled really well. It was a pitch that was on the slow side, and if you bowled straight and on a good length, it was quite hard to get away.”
Brief scores:
Bangladesh: 124/9 in 20 Overs (Mushfiqur Rahim 29; Tymal Mills 3/27, Liam Livingstone 2/15) lost to England 126-2 in 14.1 overs (Jason Roy 61, Dawid Malan 28; Nasum Ahmed 1/26)