Sonny Baker has vowed to be himself in an England shirt after further banishing memories of a jittery start to international cricket by helping to dismantle Sri Lanka with his first white-ball wickets.
The high-energy Hampshire seamer took three for 12 on Tuesday evening as England began their Vitality T20 series with a crushing 119-run victory at his home ground in Southampton.
Baker finished wicketless on his one-day international debut against South Africa last September before drawing another blank on his T20 bow against Ireland later that month.
The 23-year-old claimed three wickets on his Test debut against New Zealand in June and is starting to feel at home playing for his country ahead of Thursday’s second T20 against Sri Lanka in Cardiff.
“During my T20 debut I feel I was still probably trying to clutch back my ODI debut, in that my ODI debut went poorly statistically,” said Baker.
“And that then meant I still really felt like I needed to prove myself and really, really wanted to do well. I wouldn’t have said that I was myself necessarily.
“I’m a very high-energy character. I love playing for England and I almost wanted to do well too badly.
“I’ve probably learnt from that and particularly my Test debut, one of my biggest commitments that I said beforehand was: I’m a carry-on merchant. I’m going to carry on doing that as I am and really be high-energy and commit to just being myself out there.
“I felt that that (his T20 debut) probably didn’t represent where I was at at that time. Have I made progression since then? Absolutely. I bowled pretty nicely, held length well, have been mixing my pace a bit more, which is something that I’ve added to my game.”
Harry Brook’s unbeaten 114, including a 42-ball century and 30 runs off Dunith Wellalage in the fifth over alone, and 80 from Jos Buttler helped England post a mammoth 254 for four at the Utilita Bowl.
Baker clean-bowled Kamil Mishara and had Lahiru Udara caught by Adil Rashid in the space of five balls before capping his evening by pinging Maheesh Theekshana’s off stump as Sri Lanka were skittled for 135.
“I’m just buzzing to have got off to a start in terms of (white-ball) wickets,” he said.
“We spoke about holding length being really important on that wicket and that really paid dividends.
“I thought all of the seamers held their length really, really well. I thought we bowled really nicely. Really happy with that performance.”
Brook’s century was his first in 18 international innings in all formats and England’s joint second-fastest in T20.
“Brookie played phenomenally well,” said Baker. “I wouldn’t say they bowled particularly badly.
“Some ridiculous shots in there, particularly against spin was ludicrous – that over for 30 just shows how good he is really.
“Regardless of what we were defending, I think as a team we put in a pretty good performance. I’d say we’re really happy.”
