
Ahmedabad, March 13: England pacer Jofra Archer said competition brings the best out of him. Archer returned with figures of 3-23 in his four overs and restricted India to a below-par score. The bowling performance earned Archer the Player of the Match award.
England defeated India by 8 wickets in the first T20I at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Friday (March 12) to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
"When the competition is tough you step up and competition brings out the best in me. Probably in the IPL I see myself as the leader of the attack, but not in England set up as there are many world class bowlers.
"I rather go for dot balls than wickets in the powerplay and if I get wickets it is a bonus. Usually for a new batter or you have the bigger side of the boundary you bowl the short ball. Everything has been very good," Archer said in the post-match press conference.
Archer said bowling first on the two-paced Motera track gave them a bit of an advantage as they exploited the conditions early.
"I was excited to bowl first because there was a bit of dew when we trained the other night .... getting on top of the conditions gave us a little bit of an advantage. It was a very good team performance on a slow wicket," said Archer.
India lost three early wickets, including that of skipper Virat Kohli, who continued his poor form from the Test series after being dismissed for another duck.
"He is a dangerous batter. To see him back early in the innings so many times is a bonus. It's kind of a dampener in their camp obviously being the leader of the side they expected him to score some runs. So, it was some advantage to get him early," Archer said.
The series is seen as a build up to the T20 World Cup slated in India later this year but Archer said they are not looking too far ahead.
"It's just the first game of the series. We still have four games to go. They are number two in the world for a reason," he said.