{"id":147016,"date":"2025-05-31T14:32:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147016\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T14:32:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:32:20","slug":"england-seamer-saqib-mahmood-confident-he-can-play-a-leading-role-in-new-white-ball-era-under-harry-brook-as-he-reveals-delight-with-his-injury-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147016\/","title":{"rendered":"England seamer Saqib Mahmood confident he can play a leading role in new white-ball era under Harry Brook &#8211; as he reveals delight with his injury recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"mol-bullets-with-font\">\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Mahmood took three wickets with the new ball in the thrashing of West Indies\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>He believes his versatility can make him a key component in Brook&#8217;s attack\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>But he is refusing to get carried away as he looks to add to his two Test caps\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-183\/david-coverdale.html\" class=\"author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DAVID COVERDALE<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  09:03 EDT, 31 May 2025   |  Updated:  09:03 EDT, 31 May 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Saqib Mahmood is confident he can play a leading role in England&#8217;s new white-ball era \u2013 thanks to his versatility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The Lancashire seamer took three wickets with the new ball as England thrashed West Indies at Edgbaston on Thursday in the first match of Harry Brook&#8217;s captaincy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">And Mahmood believes his ability to swing the ball both ways, as well as being able to bowl at both the start and end of an innings, can make him a key component in Brook&#8217;s attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I feel like I&#8217;m quite versatile in what I try,&#8217; said the 28-year-old ahead of the second ODI in <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/cardiff-city\/index.html\" id=\"mol-e6ee7900-3e1c-11f0-84fa-e3263743d5f4\" rel=\"noopener\">Cardiff<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;From one end at Edgbaston, I was trying to swing the ball back in with the breeze. Then when I came on at the other end, I found I could swing the ball away as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I try to cover all bases, especially with that new ball. That&#8217;s my way of helping out the team. That&#8217;s what I feel like my role is here. And I obviously have my skills at the backend as well.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-e74bcc9a5a995599\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98920671-14767685-image-a-15_1748695629357.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\" alt=\"England seamer Saqib Mahmood is confident he can play a key role in the new white-ball era\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">England seamer Saqib Mahmood is confident he can play a key role in the new white-ball era<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-c92ce4f7cdeb8973\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98920659-14767685-image-a-16_1748695638262.jpg\" height=\"483\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Mahmood took three wickets with the new ball as England thrashed West Indies\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Mahmood took three wickets with the new ball as England thrashed West Indies<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-5dabcf2cbc5d471a\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98920677-14767685-image-a-17_1748695646623.jpg\" height=\"414\" width=\"634\" alt=\"He believes his ability to swing the ball both ways can make him a key component\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">He believes his ability to swing the ball both ways can make him a key component<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Mahmood was not awarded an ECB central contract at the end of last year, which could have signalled the beginning of the end of his international career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">However, the pace bowler appears to be back to his best after recovering from successive stress fractures dating back to spring 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I don&#8217;t want to say I&#8217;m stronger than ever because I feel like I&#8217;m jinxing it,&#8217; said Mahmood. &#8216;But since coming back from those back injuries, this is the most I&#8217;ve put through my body and it&#8217;s tolerated it pretty well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I&#8217;ve managed to string a lot of cricket over the last 12 months and I&#8217;m just happy about that.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Despite signing a white-ball only deal with Lancashire last autumn, Mahmood made two County Championship appearances earlier this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">However, he claimed just two wickets on batting-friendly surfaces at Old Trafford and is realistic about his chances of adding to his two Test caps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;It was good that I got some overs under my belt for Lancs, but they were two pretty hard wickets to bowl on,&#8217; added Mahmood. &#8216;They didn&#8217;t really give me the best chance to try and get some wickets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;But I&#8217;m just trying to do well here at the moment. The main focus is this series and the T20s.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-27b34df5f70f9973\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98920689-14767685-image-a-21_1748695785217.jpg\" height=\"396\" width=\"634\" alt=\"England were victorious at Edgbaston in Harry Brook's (centre) first match as captain\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">England were victorious at Edgbaston in Harry Brook&#8217;s (centre) first match as captain\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-5481d02c130540d4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98920665-14767685-image-m-19_1748695659538.jpg\" height=\"551\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Mahmood looks back to his best after recovering from successive stress fractures\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Mahmood looks back to his best after recovering from successive stress fractures<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-4248a69861c4f64d\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98920653-14767685-image-m-22_1748695788723.jpg\" height=\"473\" width=\"634\" alt=\"But he is refusing to get carried away as he looks to add to his two Test caps to date\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">But he is refusing to get carried away as he looks to add to his two Test caps to date<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I&#8217;m not really looking too far ahead of that because there&#8217;s just so much competition in the team and you want to do the best you can.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;You don&#8217;t really want to take your eye off it and look too far ahead. So my main focus is the here and now and I don&#8217;t want to take my eye off the action.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        England seamer Saqib Mahmood confident he can play a leading role in new white-ball era under Harry Brook &#8211; as he reveals delight with his injury recovery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mahmood took three wickets with the new ball in the thrashing of West Indies\u00a0 He believes his versatility&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,1406,92,393,7504,4884,93,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-147016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cricket","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-england-cricket","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114602937391223068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}