Road to World Cup 2021 - Key points to watch for in England's preparations

In this Covid ravished world there are no guarantees about future sporting events but let's make an assumption that the ICC will be able to find a suitable venue for the 2021 T20 World Cup which is scheduled to take place in October possibly in India possibly elsewhere.

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As current 50 over world champions as well as runners up in the previous T20 World Cup held in 2016, England will enter the tournament as one of the favourites and with just 4 months and 8 T20 internationals, starting with Wednesday's match against Sri Lanka, before they start their bid for another trophy I consider what questions still have to be answered in preparation for the tournament.

Who opens?

England's dilemma at the top of the order mirrors most the major cricket playing nations as they prepare for the 2021 World Cup in that pretty much every batsman in T20 cricket wants to bat at the top of the order! The harder ball, faster bowling and of course fielding restrictions of the powerplay mean that getting your innings started is so much easier if you are opening than at any other position.

Equally, England are not exactly short of options in this position. In the 16 man squad named to face Sri Lanka they have 4 genuine options in the form of Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy and Liam Livingstone and of course, they still have the likes of Alex Hales and Ben Stokes waiting on the sidelines not to mention a whole host of players around the country who would love a shot at going in first at this level.

The real debate at the moment though is as to whether Jos Buttler should open for England. The discussion is less around whether he is a good enough opener, there is no question that he is one of the best T20 batsmen on the planet and has scored plenty of runs from the top of the order, but more around whether England are short of finishers in the middle order a role for which Buttler is also well suited.

Of course, much of England's 50 over success has been built on the back of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow's excellent opening partnership and there are calls from many for them to be reunited at the top of the order for the shortest format too.

I think the concern here is that both but in particular Roy have had their struggles against slow left arm bowling and that sides would see this as a favourable match-up with which to dominate a crucial part of the game. Buttler, while also being a right-hander, actually has a very good record against slow left arm bowling so while sides might fancy targeting Roy with it while Buttler remains at the crease the option seems less appealing.

Short of a dramatic loss of form or injury I can't see England diverging from their plans to open with Buttler and Roy when the tournament begins but lets see how the next few months progress.

Buttler has been groomed for the opening role really since the last T20 World Cup

Who bats number 3?

I was absolutely crucified on social media by some cricket fans at the start of the India vs England T20 games back in February for suggesting that Dawid Malan's place was under pressure. At the time of course Malan was ranked as the number 1 batsmen in the world in T20 cricket having scored a truckload of runs over the last 12 months.

I'll summarise the argument I made to those who believed I was talking out of my backside

  • The ICC rankings particularly for white-ball cricket are bullshit, we all know that
  • Malan scored runs against New Zealand which is well known for very flat wickets and small boundaries leading to it being the highest-scoring location for T20i cricket full stop
  • Malan also scored runs against a 2nd string South Africa bowling attack at altitude
  • He looked woefully short of form in the Big Bash where he played for Hobart Hurricanes just before that series against India
  • He has no prior form or experience in sub-continent conditions
  • His captain, Eoin Morgan, has already been critical of what he perceived as selfish batting on Malan's part

In the first 4 games of the series, he scored 80 runs from 77 balls and needless to say I was feeling pretty smug about my previous comments.

Malan's problem is that he wants 15 to 20 balls to get himself going almost regardless of the match situation. That isn't a major problem if as he was during that golden 12 month period, he is then able to accelerate and get a big score but over the last 12 months of cricket, he's been failing to do that and is instead soaking up those 15-20 balls at a S/R of about 100 and then getting out, placing pressure on the middle order to up the ante and compensate for his slow scoring.

For me, Malan's style of play contradicts England's overall plans in white-ball cricket which is to utilise the power and depth of their batting and go hard from ball one.

Equally, Malan is at odds with what I would say is the ideal player to bat number 3 in T20. There are of course many different tactics across different match situations that could prove successful but I feel the powerplay in T20 cricket is so important that you simply can't have players in your top 3 who aren't able to fully capitalise on it. I can certainly see why you'd want your openers to take a couple of overs to get their eye in before going big but thereafter it should be foot to floor as far a trying to accelerate the scoring goes and with Malan at 3, if England lose an early wicket then it's like trying to drive an F1 car with an anchor attached to the back!

Ben Stokes has been talked up as being a potential number 3. He's certainly had success at the top of the order playing for Rajasthan Royals and the England management have openly talked about wanting to get him more involved in the T20 format where they hope he can deliver match-winning performances.

However, the man I feel best matches the description of a player who can come in and strike the ball from the off is Moeen Ali who for the first part of the 2021 IPL season was playing this role to perfection for his new franchise CSK. Quite frankly, if Stephen Flemming, head coach of CSK and one of the best thinkers on the game of cricket going sees Moeen as the man for this role in his side then that's good enough for me!

England have mismanaged Moeen for most of his career but particularly so over the last couple of years. They need to get him in the squad and give him the confidence to play his natural game because at his best there are very few players in world cricket who can strike the ball with such languid ease and power.

Moeen comes in after a difficult first few overs for CSK and immediately shifts the momentum of the innings from number 3

Moeen shows that even where the openers have gotten off to a good start he can come in and carry on the scoring

Mixing and matching in the middle order

England ran into a few problems in their recent series against India by having 3 left-handers in a row at positions 5 to 7 in the form of Morgan, Stokes and Curran and while I don't particularly subscribe to the idea of always having a right hand, left-hand combination at the crease clearly having a middle-order dominated by southpaws does make it easier for opposition sides to consider their match-ups both pre-game and during it.

The likes of Bairstow, Morgan and Stokes therefore probably need to be used more flexibly to account for this and there is the possibility that England will seek to insert another right-handed batsman into their middle order.

The problem as described above when considering Buttler's role in the team is that there aren't many natural candidates for the "finisher" role in English cricket at the moment. The 2 guys included in the squad for the T20s against Sri Lanka who will be hoping to throw their name into the hat are Liam Livingstone and Sam Billings.

Both had chances in the ODI series that followed the T20s in India and it was Livingstone who impressed most batting in an unfamiliar number 6 role and scoring a few runs. It's certainly a big ask for him to come in and try and establish himself at this level in a role that he doesn't play for his county or in franchise T20 cricket but he might well be given another shot this summer particularly with Stokes injured and Livingstone offering a decent option as a third spinner.

Livingstone belted 28 maximums in the BBL this season and with Stokes injured I was surprised he didn't get a chance to show his power for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. He did absolutely the right thing in opting to leave the IPL come back to England be involved with Lancashire in the early part of the season.

Balance in the attack

England's stated aim in the series against Indian was to take more powerplay wickets which has been a real problem for the side in recent years. Against a very strong Indian top order they succeeded in doing that more often than not by unleashing the pace of Archer and Wood as well as the variety of Adil Rashid in those initial 6 overs.

The problem this created for England though was that it generally left them short of wicket-taking options in the middle overs as well as quality at the death.

Since England's white-ball renaissance began in 2016 it has largely been Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett that have done the damage in the middle overs but with the former being utilised upfront and the latter deemed too old to be part of England's plan post-2019 then there is definitely a gap to fill.

Getting Moeen back in the side as suggested above would certainly strengthen England's options in the middle overs and if they could shoehorn in a genuine opening bowler then that too would mean that the likes of Rashid and Wood could have more overs to bowl during that middle portion of the game.

In regards to getting an opening bowler who can nip it around a bit into their XI, it is telling that England have named both David Willey and Chris Woakes in their squad for the series that starts this week with neither man having been involved in the T20 set-up for a while.

I am big believer in having at least one bowler who can genuinely swing a cricket ball in your T20 side to utilise that skill even if it is just for an over or 2 at the top of the innings. Again, the powerplay is such an important phase of the game that having a bowler who can nick 1 or 2 out with the new ball is a real bonus and in Woakes England have a player who has shown in his IPL outings that he can do that. The bonus for both men is also that they can swing a bat so even though they might not always bowl their full allotment of overs they do at least contribute to the overall strength and depth of the batting that England have at their disposal.

With Archer out injured I'd expect to see at least one of Woakes or Willey given a chance and they could also put pressure on the place of Tom Curran and Chris Jordan if their overs in the powerplay mean that England can utilise Archer and Wood more later in the innings.

Woakes was particularly effective for DC when they played at the Wankhede Stadium and the ball did move about in the opening overs

My current squad for the T20 World Cup

If I was picking a 16 man squad for the World Cup today then I'd go for

Roy
Buttler
Hales
Bairstow
Livingstone
Moeen
Morgan
Stokes
Sam Curran
Archer
Rashid
Wood
Jordan
Woakes
Tom Curran
Dawson

Who you then pick as your XI would probably depend on conditions. If it's a slow turning track where you expect Moeen to bowl 3 or 4 overs then you could potentially bring in Livingstone as an extra batsman and 3rd spin option.

That XI might look something like Buttler, Roy, Moeen, Bairstow, Morgan, Livingstone, Stokes, Sam Curran, Jordan, Archer, Rashid

On something with a little more pace or where you think the new ball might nip around a bit early on then you look to utilise the likes of Wood and Woakes at the expense of Livingstone and potentially Chris Jordan too.

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