In his young career so far, Josh Little has regularly been an aggressive option in the Irish bowling attack. Occasional exchanges of combative words with opposition batters have revealed a player who wants to unsettle an opponent, both with the deliveries he fires down and what he says.
Of course, performance matters much more than words. Little’s recent form has made him a key part of Ireland’s plans on the eve of their World T20 campaign which gets underway on Monday against the Netherlands. Expect to see him up for the battle and leading the way with the ball.
“I’m that sort of character” he explains. “Playing cricket growing up I used to love identifying the moment and saying this is the chance is to change the game, flip it on its head and change the momentum.
“Fordy (head coach Graham Ford) and Bal (captain Andrew Balbirnie) have always told me to get stuck in. I want to let people know that as an Irish team we’re not here to just get f**ked over.
“I don’t want people to see us as these soft Irish lads. I’m always told to be aggressive and that’s what I like to do.
“I’m trying to win the game for Ireland. I’m going to go as hard as I need to.”
His words are backed up by the results. So far in Ireland’s warmup games, Little has been the side’s most economic bowler, conceding just 5.37 runs per over.
Not all of those spells have brought wickets, meaning Little’s role in the side has changed. He has gone from being a wicket-taking option to more of a container, a shift that came when he started opening the bowling last month against Zimbabwe.
“I was very much the attacking bowler, I would come on after the powerplay, try to attack the stumps and take wickets. Going back to that last Zimbabwe series when Youngy (Craig Young) got injured, I had to open up and try and swing the new ball, which I haven’t tried to do for a while.
“In that first game I swung one back and I realised, ‘wow I’m onto one here’. I’m enjoying opening the bowling, trying to both swing it back and push it across, trying to be economical in the powerplay.
“I would like more wickets but they will come in time. Up top I feel like I don’t need to go searching. Being economical in T20 is a way to win a game.”
One way of being economical is to bowl at the right time by taking advantage of individual match-ups. As Ireland’s sole left-handed bowler, Little offers vital variety. Certain batters simply don’t perform as well when facing different types of bowling, and the Ireland quick knows exactly what his forté is.
“For me, it’s left handers, whether that be early on or late in the innings. Early on I’ll look to shape the ball away from the left handed batter because it’s very dangerous. Towards the back end my natural shape will be tailing back into them, so I’ll look to go with yorkers there.
“That is something that we’re all aware of, that I’m quite good against left handers and I actually get a lot of wickets against them. That’s something I’ve always had as a left arm bowler.”
In their final warmup game, the Netherlands - Monday's opponents - opened with two left-handed batters. You can guess Little’s reaction when he saw that.
The Dutch are one of three opponents for Ireland in the opening stage of this World T20 alongside Sri Lanka and Namibia. Two wins and qualification to play with the big boys in the Super 12s will be ensured.
Ireland will be strong favourites against Namibia, meaning Netherlands and Sri Lanka are the big two clashes. Little knows which one he is targeting the most.
“Anyone can go well on their day but if I were to pick one it would be that Dutch game, considering they beat us recently (July) in a one-day series. We definitely want to beat them, there’s that rivalry there.
“They have a very good side, we know that we can’t take them lightly. It’s going to be huge for us. If we can get that initial win against them then that should propel us to greater things in this tournament.”
