Singaporean-Australian freelancer looks to build on his Mumbai Indians form in the Blast and the Hundred
Matt Roller27-May-2022Tim David faced 86 balls in this year’s IPL and hit 16 of them for six. His strike rate of 216.27 was the highest ever in a single IPL season (min. 50 balls faced) and he arrived in Manchester this week ahead of a stint with Lancashire, finding room for his new tag as one of the world’s most destructive T20 batters in his luggage on the flight from Mumbai.He will make his debut on Friday night alongside Liam Livingstone, another breakout star of IPL 2022; Jos Buttler, the competition’s leading run-scorer this season, will arrive next week to complete the most powerful batting line-up the Vitality Blast has ever seen. First up is a sold-out Roses match against a Yorkshire side featuring Adil Rashid, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan in their bowling attack at Emirates Old Trafford.But for all David’s success in India, it was only a month ago that he found himself running drinks for a sixth consecutive game. Signed for INR 8.25 crore (US$1.1 million) in February’s auction, David made 1 and 12 in his first two innings as Mumbai Indians started with back-to-back defeats and found himself benched – even when there were two overseas spots available in the starting XI.”It wasn’t ideal,” David tells ESPNcricinfo, speaking from his new home ground the day after landing in the UK. “It was just a team balance thing. It being the start of a new cycle, teams were trying to find their best combinations and unfortunately, I found myself out of the side.”I felt like I was batting as well as I ever have. It was frustrating personally but you can’t look at it as anything more than that, and I knew it was my job to be ready to go when I got back in the team. I’m really pleased I took that opportunity when it came.”Related
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He took it with both hands, hitting 173 runs off 75 balls in his final six innings to dispel the notion that volatility is inherent in the finisher’s role. “I feel like I improved a lot, which was my biggest goal,” he says. “You can’t control performances on the field but I felt like if I grew as a player over two-and-a-half months there, it would put me in good stead moving forwards and I’m pretty pleased with how I progressed.”David’s life has changed immeasurably in the last 12 months, a period which has seen him transform from a promising Big Bash hitter into a globe-trotting T20 gun-for-hire. Aged 26, he does not hold a state contract and has never played a first-class game but is making waves around the world as a middle-order specialist.
“Once you get out into a game, it’s keeping it as simple as you can: watch the ball as closely as you can, keep your mind blank, and be aggressive”Tim David’s T20 philosophy
It was this time last year that David was picked as a last-minute replacement player by Lahore Qalandars on the back of a strong BBL for Hobart Hurricanes. “That was my first overseas franchise experience. I did all right for six games and off the back of that, I was close to getting a gig with St Lucia in the CPL,” he recalls.Rather than returning to Australia and facing two weeks of hotel quarantine before flying to the Caribbean, he agreed to join a club in Holland, with the hope of spending the summer there. Ten days into his stint, his agent told him that Surrey were after an overseas player for their final two Blast group games.David jumped at the chance and stayed at the club for the Royal London Cup, thumping 340 runs in eight 50-over innings with a strike rate of 150.44; that earned him a deal with Southern Brave for the Hundred’s knockout stages and he was their match-winner in the final, hitting 15 off 6 balls then running Livingstone out with a direct hit.His form continued at the CPL and after running the drinks for Royal Challengers Bangalore, he picked up where he left off with Hobart. “I’ve gone from BBL into PSL into IPL, and now I’ve landed here in Manchester,” he says. “I’ve been so busy playing franchise tournaments over the last year and having such a fun time.”