Leeds (England), Jun 22 (IANS): By his own admission, Trent Boult has had a hectic last few months. He was in India for the whole duration of Indian Premier League (IPL) season 2022 for Rajasthan Royals, where he picked 16 wickets in as many matches at an average of 30.75 and economy rate of 7.93 as they finished as runners-up.
Immediately after the IPL 2022 final ended, Boult was off to England to link up with the Test side ahead of a three-match Test series, starting from Lord's.
While many didn't expect him to play in the first Test, Boult did make it to the eleven and scalped three wickets in the first innings to leave England 141 all out.
Since then, Boult has been impressive in being the leading wicket-taker of the series, picking 12 scalps at an average of 24.50, with a best innings haul of 5/106. In the run-up to the third Test at Headingley, Boult explained how he relishes the challenge of bowling at his best while shifting from one format to another.
"It's been a busy couple of months for me coming from the IPL. It is a challenge as a modern-day fast bowler to move between the formats but I love the challenge, I love the opportunity to run in for my country and the group of guys in there as well. It was nice to get away and refresh a little bit and the guys are energised and really looking forward to the next couple of the days.
"I flew through Dubai, then came here... and then just really cracked on with it really! The Dukes ball is always exciting to get in your hand and it's nice to see the ball move around a little bit. It's one of those things, a lot of the guys in that group have a lot of passion to put the Black Cap on their head and the motivation for everyone is there to go out and perform. So it was an easy choice for me."
Though New Zealand have lost the Test series after being beaten at Lord's and Trent Bridge by identical margin of five wickets, Boult thinks the visitors have still got in them to sign off from the tour on a high.
"To be on the wrong side of that result was pretty tough, but I think a lot of credit's due to some phenomenal cricket that's been played there. Nothing too much changes for us )at Headingley) but hopefully we get into him (Jonny Bairstow) nice and early with the ball a bit new, and we'll see what happens.
"I suppose it's hard being 2-0 down in the series. But there's a lot of pride in that changing room from some of the performances we've put out over the last few years. If we're fair we probably haven't been at the standards we want to be as a group, it's nice to have one game to go out and play like we know we can."