Tim David took plenty out of the T20 World Cup Qualifier in Dubai, despite Singapore falling short of a place at next year’s tournament.
Singapore started the event with two thrilling victories but were unable to find their best as they lost the four remaining group matches.
David said there would be plenty of learnings out of the experience and will look forward to more opportunities in the future. He said the Netherlands and Namibia had been particularly strong opponents to test themselves against.
“It was a pretty hectic tournament actually,” David told emageogroup.com. “It was certainly pretty busy from the time we got to Dubai. There wasn’t much respite, but I think we started well, obviously beating Scotland and then we beat Bermuda, though we didn’t really play that well.
“There were some pretty good teams there, some well structured sides so I think it was a good experience for our team to kind of see how those guys prepare.
“There are a lot of qualification processes to get to the big tournaments but if we improve and take the learnings from this tournament then there’s no reason why we can’t get back to this stage again and do better. I think it was a good eye opener for a lot of our guys because it’s the highest level they’ve played.”
David had a slow start during the Qualifier but put in some big performances late, including 44 runs from 26 balls in the loss to Papua New Guinea.
“I guess I batted well in one game against PNG but I didn’t really contribute to the result so it was a bit of mixed feelings,” David said.
“It was a good experience and the more times you play tournaments like that, you can try and turn things around when you maybe don’t start as well as you’d like. I was probably trying too hard to be honest. The first week I was batting for like two hours every day in the nets and it just didn’t really happen and then throughout the tournament I didn’t bat really apart from the games and I played a bit better.
“Maybe a bit more of a relaxed attitude is better, particularly for the T20s.”
David also enjoyed the opportunity to bowl more of his off-spin in Dubai.
“I haven’t bowled that much off-spin in T20s,” he said. “I bowled nearly four overs each game so I guess I learned what works and what I need to do to get better to be able to do that moving forward.
“I think If I can provide a couple of effective overs with the ball then that really complements my batting and fielding in the deep, which are probably my main two aspects of playing T20s so I guess you want to be an asset to the team. If I can improve and contribute in that area that really helps, I think.”
David is having a short break before returning to Perth for club cricket.
“I’m looking forward to training really well back in the Academy at the WACA, so getting stuck in there,” he said.
“It’s probably six weeks until the Big Bash so I’m trying to target that and build on what I’ve been doing the last couple of months. Moving forward my season at home is the priority.”
David expects to play for Singapore again in the future as long as it fits around his commitments at home in Perth.