England cricketer Tom Hartley has the ninth best bowling figures in a Test Innings on debut.
The Ormskirk star took 7/62 against India in the first test of their five-match series.
And the left arm off spinner told Merseysportlive he is now targeting white ball cricket for England and the Indian Premier League.
“Yeah, obviously I still think white ball is a pretty good format for me and you know I’m trying to be more of an all-format player now, but I think the IPL is what most players want to play in.
“To be in such a huge tournament and to see all the fan bases, it is huge so hopefully one day if I’m getting good enough hopefully, I get picked.”
Lancashire CC’s Hartley finished the test series against India as England’s leading wicket taker with 22 wickets.
Although, he did become the third bowler in Test cricket history to be hit for six on his first ball on debut.
The cricket ace said the influence of England Captain Ben Stokes led him to be a resilient cricketer after revealing there were times on tour he did not want to bowl.
“Yeah, it’s pretty easy there were plenty of times I put my head down and told Ben to take me off and stuff like that.
“But I think you really have to put a smile on your face really and believe that you are going to get wickets.
“It’s going to be easier and fortunately you know that’s what happened and the changing room really supports that belief and the group and it really just builds you up quite a lot which is real nice so you can come back.”
For Lancashire, Hartley has only played 20 first class matches and has taken 40 wickets.
Therefore, it came as a surprise when was called up to the test squad.
He is an established white ball cricketer taking 68 wickets in 82 career T20 appearances for Lancashire and the Manchester Originals in the Hundred.
Moreover, he was rewarded for his white ball talents already receiving two caps for England in ODI cricket after he featured twice against Ireland in September 2023.
His father Bill Hartley won a gold medal at the 1974 European Championships held in Rome in the 4x400m relay.
Tom said he was encouraged to play sport due to the influence of his father being a sporting athlete and revealed he first played football prior to being a cricketer.
“From the age of seven I played football just locally.
“I wanted to be good at it, but I was crap really once I moved schools, we started playing cricket on the school yard and we just went from there.
“All my mates played so my dad always wanted me to play sport and I think he was quite glad I didn’t go into athletics quite a change for him but he’s loving cricket really.”
The 24-year-old will be hoping to star for England this summer as they have a three-match test series against West Indies and Sri Lanka as well as a T20 series against Pakistan and Australia.
The English cricket star will be hoping to contribute with both ball and bat this summer as he has two first class half centuries to his name for Lancashire with a career best of 73*.
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