A fantastic summer for Chris Schofield culminated in selection as part of England’s squad for the ICC World Twenty20 and more recently a place on the ECB Academy. Here he has spoken to Surrey TV about what he is expecting to achieve this winter.

If you want to see the whole of Schofield’s interview with Surrey TV, click here.

Schofield’s summer went from strength to strength starting with some accomplished performances in the Friends Provident Trophy. He progressed through the Twenty20 Cup finishing up the leading wicket taker in the regional matches before cementing a place in the LV County Championship side, forming a deadly spin partnership with Harbhajan Singh. His impressive display in the Twenty20 Cup gained him selection for the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa and this has since been followed with selection as a member of the ECB Academy for the winter.

The Surrey man was part of the first ever ECB Academy back in 2000. What are his memories of the last time he was part of the England set-up?

“It has been seven years since I went on the Academy,” recalled Schofield. “We went to Australia and were in an Academy set-up there. We got up early in the morning at 6am to either do beach runs or go to the swimming pool. The days were pretty full-on with intense training, some nets and a lot of cricket related drills.”

“It’s a bit different this year as we are on stand-by for the Test series in Sri Lanka.”

After a successful summer with Surrey and some good performances with England in South Africa, what will Schofield be looking to work on in his time with the Academy?

“I will look to get my fitness back to where it was four or five years ago. With two years out of the game, my fitness has dropped a little bit.”

“Regarding my game, I can work on my batting. The last couple of years, I have been focussing on my bowling to try and get that the way it should be when back playing county cricket”

When announcing the Test squad for the tour to Sri Lanka at the Brit Oval last week, the Chairman of Selectors, David Graveney, mentioned that the Academy players were to be used as the fall-back option should any of the squad get injured, whilst on tour. How will the Academy be structured to allow the players to be ready should the call from Peter Moores come.

“We have two and a half weeks at Loughborough and four weeks over in India, which should stand us in good stead in case we get called up for the Test series.”

If you want to see the whole of Schofield’s interview with Surrey TV, click here.

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