Garton anticipates big summer with Sussex - and more England recognition

Sussex's T20 vice-captain has begun the 2022 county season -which started today with Sussex facing Notts at Hove - reflected on his senior England debut and experience of playing in the IPL, two things he wants to do again as well as prospering on the domestic scene.

The 24-year-old rose to fame last year, receiving his first senior international call up for England’s ODI series squad against Sri Lanka, as well as being included in the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for the second phase of the 2021 IPL season.

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Ahead of the new campaign with Sussex, Garton has spoken about both experiences, insisting he wants more games for his country.

“I guess it’s any young cricketer's dream to play for their country, so to be able to represent England was a dream come true," he said. “Certainly, the first step to hopefully plenty more games for me, I don’t want to have one cap and that’s it. I’d love to play as many games as possible, and in all three formats as well.

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“It was a great experience, a lot learned from it. It was a pretty tough debut the way the game panned out, but a lot learned from it, and it puts me in good stead going forward.”

While playing in the Indian Premier League, Garton featured alongside some of cricket’s biggest names in the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell.

Garton believes his time in the IPL, as well as learning off such prestigious players, has given him some key experiences that will put him in good stead for the new season.

“To go straight from my first franchise stuff to the IPL was jumping straight in the deep end if you like but it was an awesome experience both on and off the pitch. Firstly, being in the dressing room with Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell, the biggest stars in the world.

“To be able to learn from them both on and off the pitch, the way they go about training and also just to be able to talk to them as human beings, learn about their struggles, how they cope with stress and high-pressure situations, family life. The whole experience was really cool.”

Garton now turns his attention to the new season with Sussex after he was named vice captain to Ravi Bopara for the club’s T2O side, who will be going for glory later in the campaign once the first block of four-day action has been finished.

He gave his thoughts on what he expects from himself and the side this season as they look to improve on last season’s T20 semi-final finish.

“The last couple of years I’ve tried not to put too much on it because of injuries and whatever in the past. I’ve tried to just say that as long as I’m happy, playing cricket and going out there and winning games with Sussex I’m very happy.

“That’s really my goal this year too, just to have fun, make sure I’m happy, go out there and entertain, do the best I can and let things fall into place. We got semi-finals last year so there’s only one more game to go after that. I think we’ve still got the team to do it.

“Obviously we don’t have Chris Jordan or Phil Salt anymore, but I think some good overseas signings, and Steve Finn and Fynn Hudson-Prentice coming in, I think we’ve still got the team and the depth there to really push for finals day.”