Too many cooks spoil the broth – but too few batsmen expose a T20 team. England picked only five for their three-match series in Bangladesh, and found themselves 2–0 behind after posting totals of 156 and 117, both of which were chased down with relative ease.
England’s initial 15-man squad for this series contained seven batsmen. Then, Tom Abel kept his side playing for the England Lions in Sri Lanka and Will Jack suffered a thigh injury in the second ODI. No replacements were called in, and so England’s No. 8-10 batted at No. 6-8 in Bangladesh from the side that won the T20 World Cup in Australia.
All three of them – Sam Curran, Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan – are all capable players, but have hardly contributed in this series. England’s imbalance remained uneasily during their defeat at Chattogram; as they slip 91 to 4 in Mirpur 117 all outThen Jordan’s ball was not used till the 19th over, it became impossible to ignore it.
Nasser Hussain said, “If we as the England cricket team can’t have one or two extra batsmen on the field in Bangladesh… I don’t think it’s good enough to say ‘we’re one batsman short’.” on Sky Sports’ coverage. “You see what it means to them [Bangladesh] I am winning today We have to take that game with the same respect.”
But selection for this tour has been a delicate juggling act, with the vast majority of the team having traveled to New Zealand for a Test series ahead of the IPL or the English summer, and many white-ball specialists playing in the Pakistan Super League instead. Central contract for
Take Jason Roy, for example. England could have asked Roy to stay on for another week when Jack flew home, but to do so would have meant sacrificing a proportion of his PSL earnings in exchange for England’s three match fees. Any financial loss would have been relatively small, but the ECB relinquished control of Roy’s schedule when they opted not to offer him a central contract for 2022-23.
In practice, the decision not to hold Roy back in Bangladesh paid off. He could open the batting against a strong Bangladesh attack in challenging conditions this week; Instead, he went back to Pakistan and scored an unbeaten 145 off 63 balls for the Quetta Gladiators. an innings he described as his “favourite-all-time”. In a T20 career spanning over 300 games.
Naturally, a handful of fringe players may feel tough by this: Sam iswho captained the England Lions in Abel’s absence at the end of the Sri Lanka tour, is a much better T20 player and could bring some strength to this batting line-up; Jordan CoxThe man who is running the drink for the Lahore Qalandars was an unused squad member on England’s seven-match tour of Pakistan in September and may wonder how he hasn’t been given a chance all winter.
But England’s clear argument was that those players are so far down the pecking order in white-ball cricket that they are likely to feature in the 50-over World Cup later this year – or the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the Americas, which was only 14 months away—the minimum. Thus, he took the opportunity to boost his all-rounders and give them experience on the spinning pitches of the subcontinent.
“It’s a different balance and it’s a different experience for the team, people who want to take risks – especially in these conditions – who will probably also play a part in the 50-over World Cup.” jos buttler Said. “Feeled like this was a great opportunity to expose the all-rounders, maybe batting one position higher than our normal team.
“And, look: the way cricket is at the moment, there are some players who have chosen not to be here anyway for various reasons. It seemed that instead of calling someone else, [we would be better served] Trying to use people exposed to these conditions in the 50-over World Cup as well.”
In other words, the short-term pain of jeopardizing his chances of winning a rearranged bilateral series that will soon be forgotten will be worth the long-term benefit of giving Curran, for example, batting at No.6 and facing more Chance of balls than he usually does in T20 Internationals.
It is the same logic that has informed England’s white-ball strategy since Rob Key and Matthew Mott took over as managing director and white-ball coach last year, working back from key targets. England’s chances of winning the series would have been better with an extra batsman in their squad – but he believed their World Cup hopes would go up without him.
Why didn’t Butler open?
Speaking after the game, Buttler pressed himself on his decision to drop him to No.4. He has an impressive record as an opener for England – averaging 49.20 with a strike rate of 152.22 – but opted to shuffle the middle order. Dawid Malan moved up to open at No.3 on Sunday for the first time in five years, with Moeen Ali replacing Malan in that role.
Butler said, “Obviously we have a bank of left-handed batsmen in the middle order.” ,[It was] There is an opportunity to change it a bit. David Malan is very comfortable opening or batting at No.3 and I felt it would be a good change to ask the opposition some different questions and try to break down our left and right handers.
The promotion of Malan and Moeen also meant that Bangladesh did not target Phil Salt’s weakness against left-arm spin until the sixth over – although he was dismissed by a left-arm spinner for the fourth time in five innings on this tour.
Butler said, “I am quite comfortable batting in any order.” “I’ve spent a lot of my career as a middle-order player. I thought we had some good options and felt like this would be an opportunity to try something different. I don’t really read any of it into Way too much.” As soon as the 2024 T20 World Cup comes around, he will undoubtedly be back at the top.