
England spinner Dom Bess has revealed that he took a break from cricket after the tour of India earlier this year. At the same time, he also said that he will take the learnings forward to put up good and consistent performances.
Bess further revealed that the pressure of performing while at the same time staying in a bubble got the better off him. The young spinner didn’t have a great run during the series, which added to his concerns. He further said it made him hate the game as well.
Despite taking 17 wickets at 26.58 in four Tests against Sri Lanka and India, offspinner Bess struggled for consistency and was dropped after helping England to victory in Chennai in February. He only came back into the team in the final Test. By then, he lost his form and ended wicketless as his team went down to the hosts 3-1 in the series.
“After India, I had a good break away from it, because I really did start hating cricket. It got too much at times, certainly in that bubble in India. There’s a lot of pressure going on and it was really important for me to come back and get away from it,” Bess told ESPNCricinfo in an interview.
The young spinner further said that when a player is doing well in a bubble, then everything is going to go in his favour. However, a couple of poor performances can take a toll on him/her.
“It was nice to get away from it (bio-bubble), because in India, in the bubble, everything was about cricket. It’s fine when you’re going well, but when things aren’t going well it is very tough. But I only see what I had in India as a great positive. It’s been a tough time really, but one hell of a learning curve for me. And in terms of where I see my game, I know what I’ve got to do,” Bess said.
Bess is currently enjoying good performances in the ongoing County Championship and he took a five-wicket haul for Yorkshire in the match against Sussex at Hove.