Every budding cricketer has a hero while growing up and it is no different for Ireland batsman Paul Stirling, who saw Virender Sehwag and Australian Damien Martin in his formative years. In a virtual conversation organized by International Cricket Council (ICC), Sterling recalled the days when he tried to imitate Sehwag. “I probably had two batsmen that I would have loved to watch, one was Damien Martin, he was good to look at, pleasant on the eyes, aesthetically pleasing, whom I can never emulate and Virender Sehwag, the other whom I looked up to. (I) loved his game through the off side (and) tried to imitate a lot of his stuff, not very good, but (I) loved watching those two bat, and at home used to watch Test cricket, which was not really a normal thing to do in Belfast at the age of 10,” said Sterling, who has played 134 T20s, 3 Tests and 86 T20s.
Like Sehwag, Sterling, who made his T20 debut against Pakistan in 2009, did not change his technique despite outside criticism.
Was it a conscious effort not to change it?
It’s something you learn as you progress, it will be a lot more noisy to Sehwag than it would be to me. I think it is not, it should not affect your performance, it only affects your performance, if you really take it from outside, it does not help in any way.
Sterling, who had a sports family and a cricket ground near his house, recalled how he had fallen in love with the sport.
Cricket was primarily what I fell in love with from the youngest of about five (age).”
Sterling also said that he watched the Indian Premier League games and was surprised to see the wicket in Sharjah.
He also emphasized that he will have to work equally hard to play both spinners and fast bowlers in the T20 World Cup.
Of course we have to work hard against spin and we have to prepare well in the nets, but also keep an eye on the fact that there is something you have your eye on like (while) playing spin, fast bowlers and other factors as well. Don’t forget those who come into it, so there is a lot of skill (necessary) to play against the fast bowlers as well, he signed.
The T20 World Cup will be played in Oman and the United Arab Emirates from October 17 and Ireland will first take on the Netherlands on October 18 at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
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