Glenn Phillips credits 'hard work at gym' for his power-hitting

New Zealand cricketer Glenn Phillips has managed to nail a permanent spot in New Zealand’s T20I team, having recently been seen in action while representing Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. Phillips has hit more sixes than anyone else in T20 cricket (which includes the Hundred) this year. The cricketer from New Zealand has credited his six-hitting down to extensive workouts at the gym.

“Combination of working hard in the gym as well as understanding my game”

“Being in the gym has had a lot to do with it [six-hitting]. I’ve definitely put on some weight and started throwing a bit more tin around. So when it came to batting in the middle, if I did need to take it deeper, I could, but I always knew that I could catch-up and clear the rope if I had to. I think understanding what my strong shots are to be able to hit those sixes allows me to keep a cool head and play the right balls and hit them for six, as opposed to just trying to hit everything for six,” said Phillips during a media interaction as quoted by Cricinfo.

“I think it’s a combination of working hard in the gym as well as understanding my game and what my strengths are and understanding the line and length that I’m looking for in order to be able to hit the maximum. Liam [Livingstone] is an incredible ball-striker, so he’s always going to be a tough one to keep off my heels and with the World Cup coming up and a couple of matches left in the year still it’s going to be a tough chase to see who finishes on top there,” he added.

“Try to do as much exercise as possible”

Phillips has been on the road since May. He participated in the Vitality Blast, Hundred, the CPL and most recently the IPL in the UAE.

“Especially when I’m quarantined and alone and there’s not much to do, I try to do as much exercise as possible, but at the moment [in the New Zealand bubble] I’ve got my partner here, so we enjoy as much time together as possible before she ends up leaving. I think as soon as she’s gone again, it’ll be exercising 24/7,” he said.

“At one stage I was sort of doing 800 [press-ups] a day over three sets. I’d do a set of 300, then 300, and 200. And on an average day, I’d normally end up with about 500. So, the 300 and 200 set – they all depend upon what the day was and depending on other workouts I was doing – sometimes cardio, sometimes it’d be strength-based, but those are definitely the ones that made the biggest difference to when I got back home where my numbers on things like the bench press and bench pull went skyrocketing went from doing just body-weight stuff,” added Phillips.

“I’m really feeling good about my bowling”

The cricketer is still improving as a bowler and hopes to be selected in clashes against India and Afghanistan.

“I’m really feeling good about my bowling at the moment. It was awesome from Sanju [Samson] to give me a couple of opportunities in the IPL as well in these conditions and I definitely understood that I probably bowled a little bit fuller in the second game and such is the case with some games. As a bowler, some bowlers are going to get a tap regardless of whether they bowl all the time or they are working on my skill like myself,” said Phillips.