BEVON JACOBS | Blackcaps batter on T20 series against India starting this week

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Scotty (0:15)

Big night on Thursday night at Hagley Oval. As this Indian series gets underway, she's an absolute doozy. To get the summer started, and hopefully the weather plays ball, because there's a few lads who would love to get out there and have a first crack at this Indian side, BJ Jacobs among them. Bevon, good morning.

Bevon Jacobs (0:33)

Morning Scotty, how are you?

Scotty (0:34)

I'm good brother, how are you going? How was your hit out at Suburbs?

Bevon Jacobs (0:38)

I'm going well, thanks. Thanks for having me on. And yeah, that was an interesting hit out to say the least.

It was good to see the boys in a bit of the club scene, and to play probably one of the all time club 11s, I'd have to say. But it was good fun. I think it was great for the Coast Boys to obviously get a taste of what it's like as well.

Scotty (0:57)

BJ, in terms of what you want to achieve personally out of this series, mate, where are you at? Where's your headset? Where's your game at?

Bevon Jacobs (1:04)

Yeah, look, obviously, it's a huge series, and it's awesome to be a part of it, and I want to play as much as I can, you know. But I think at the end of the day, I've just got to focus on what I can try and improve on in training. And if I get the opportunity to go out there, you know, just try and take it with both hands and really get the team over the line, whatever the situation is. But yeah, as you said before, it's a massive series, and all the boys are really excited to get going.

Izzy (1:27)

BJ, what does the next couple of days look like for the group getting ready to take on India? Man, when it got announced, so much anticipation, excitement. Now it's finally here. So how do you shape the next couple of days?

Bevon Jacobs (1:40)

Yeah, look, the next couple of days are pretty busy. We've obviously got a lot of training to get through and to get done as a group. And obviously, with such a big series, there's always that other content and stuff that you have to get done as well. But I think the boys, obviously, the main focus is the training over the next couple of days and making sure that we're really specific and purposeful with what we're trying to do and what we're trying to achieve. And if we can control that, I'm sure it's going to put us in good stead for the fixtures.

Scotty (2:06)

BJ, last tour away with the New Zealand side was the A tour across to Australia. Scores of 49, 58, 23 and 8 in the last four games you played. It feels like a long time ago, August, doesn't it?

Bevon Jacobs (2:18)

Yeah, it does feel like a wee while ago. But it's nice to be able to get some cricket in during that time of year.

When it's heavy pre-season in Auckland and usually the weather is not cooperating at that time. So it's hard to get anything outside. So that was a really cool tour. It was with a good group and we had a lot of fun. We will hopefully take whatever we can learn out of that and hopefully bring it into this next series. It would be great.

Izzy (2:42)

When you're taking on India, no doubt the team wants to focus on themselves and getting what you can do right. But no doubt there will be a huge focus on the strengths from India and what threat they pose.

When it comes up against India, what do you need now? What do you need to get right to ensure you've got a genuine chance to get a result?

Bevon Jacobs (3:01)

Yeah, absolutely.

There's no dodging the fact that they're a world class team and they have been for a long time. Every time they bring a squad over here, it's going to be a strong one. So I know the boys are aware of that. I think to speak for ourselves, we've got such a strong squad as well. I think a lot of these boys have obviously had a lot of successes against India in the past and they've had some good match ups. So I think going back to that and knowing what serves well for them in the past. And I think again, like I said, our training is just being purposeful and focusing on our strengths and what we can control. Obviously we've got the home advantage, you could say in that respect. And I think the boys are going to be fighting for that and trying to make it as tough for them as possible and get some wins out of the line.