Chris Jordan hails ‘tremendous’ England bowling attack

Chris Jordan on Thursday hailed the “tremendous” efforts of England’s improvised bowling attack following dominant victories in their first two T20 World Cup matches.

England skittled defending champions the West Indies for 55 and won by six wickets in their tournament opener before restricting Bangladesh to 124-9 and cantering to an eight-wicket victory on Wednesday.

Their performances with the ball were all the more impressive given Eoin Morgan’s men are missing several key bowlers.

England travelled to the United Arab Emirates without the injured Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes and Sam Curran, while Tom Curran and Mark Wood were also sidelined from the opening two matches.

But left-arm seamer Tymal Mills and all-rounder Chris Woakes have stepped up after returning to England’s Twenty20 squad for the first time since 2017 and 2015 respectively.

ALSO READ: Roy praises bowlers for England’s second T20 World Cup win

“The chemistry between the boys and the way everyone has taken on each and every role they’ve been given has been tremendous,” said England paceman Jordan.

“We were searching for that intensity and going into that first game that was a big focus — to bring our level of intensity and let everything else take care of itself.”

England bowled 59 dot balls in 86 deliveries in the rout of the West Indies, with off-spinner Moeen Ali named player of the match after taking 2-17 with 18 dot balls.

Leg-spinner Adil Rashid took 4-2 but played a lesser role against Bangladesh as Mills, Liam Livingstone, Woakes and Ali shared the wickets, in a match where Jordan himself bowled two wicketless overs for 15 runs.

“Everyone is juggled around and any time someone’s entered the game they’ve hit their straps and backed what guys have done previously. Long may that continue,” added the 33-year-old.

“We want to continue building, searching for areas we can improve and keep building as the tournament goes along.”

England face Australia — whom they beat in the 2010 World T20 final — in Dubai on Saturday in their quest to become the first team to hold simultaneously this title and the 50-over World Cup.