Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 16 (ANI): Former South African batter Heinrich Klaasen, currently participating in The Hundred tourmament with Manchester Super Giants (MSG) said that the international retirement has helped him get enough time to reset, recover and work on things that need work before the next tournament.
Klaasen's team MSG, will be playing the final of the Men's Hundred competition against Trent Rockets on Sunday. Klaasen, who announced his retirement from international cricket last year, has played seven innings and scored 166 runs at an average of 23.71 and a strike rate of 182.41, with two fifties in the ongoing edition of the tournament.
Speaking on JioStar, Klaasen said on retiring from international cricket, "Retiring from international cricket gave me the freedom to have a break in between these competitions. For the majority of these competitions, I've got about a month, a month and a half, or two months off in between. So that gives me enough time to just reset, take everything in, work on the things that need to be worked on, and just get the body ready for the next tournament."
He said that while he has not been able to win trophies for his teams in the T20 circuit, the goal remains to get the team into position to win trophies and keep the quality of his cricket up with less game time on his hands.
"Winning trophies is one goal. It has been a lean run on the trophies, so the personal goal is to get into, and get the team into positions to win trophies. Then, obviously, a big challenge now, playing less cricket, is to keep the quality of cricket up. I had a good IPL (624 runs in 15 innings with six fifties); I have had a good start to The Hundred, it was a little bit silent in the middle, but the key was to get some runs under the belt and keep my standard up to what it normally is," he said.
Squads:
Manchester Super Giants Squad: Tim Seifert, Paul Walter, Jos Buttler(w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Michael Bracewell, Leus du Plooy, Liam Dawson, Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue, Noor Ahmad, Sonny Baker, Max Holden, Tom Moores, George Scrimshaw, Adam Finch, Tom Hartley, Tawanda Muyeye, James Sales
Trent Rockets Squad: Ben Duckett, Finn Allen, Aneurin Donald, Sam Billings(w/c), Tim David, Mitchell Santner, Lewis Gregory, Calvin Harrison, Craig Overton, Matt Henry, Ben Sanderson, Danny Briggs, Mohammad Amir, Ben Raine, Tom Banton, Dan Mousley, Louis Kimber, Brad Currie, Ben Mayes. (ANI)
"Retiring from international cricket gave me the freedom...": Heinrich Klaasen
