T20 WC 2022: The Real Contenders #3 - England
Batting-heavy England with many players who have played BBL and T20 Cricket in Australia will certainly be a team to watch.
Going into the last T20 World Cup, England with their batting-heavy approach was one of the favorites. Despite some changes in personnel and injuries, that hasn’t changed too much. Let’s start with the English batting.
Batting
Post the 2015 ODI World Cup, England have stuck with the strategy of batting deep and found aggressive batters who could get them to big scores in both T20Is and ODIs. And this approach has paid off, they are one of the most consistent teams in limited-overs cricket and even their “B” team can compete as they showed versus Pakistan when they were hit with COVID cases.
Jonny Bairstow’s absence due to a fracture will be a big miss for England. His numbers in LOIs are outstanding and he was coming off a brilliant summer in Test Cricket. The other regular at the top who has been dropped is Jason Roy, due to his poor recent form. Luckily for England, there are plenty of good replacements to take these spots. Alex Hales has been brought back to the England team and has done well in the limited chances he has got. Since 2020, Hales strikes at nearly 160 in the PSL, BBL as well as the Hundred and he has the ability to clear the boundaries at will. His opening partner will be the new captain Jos Buttler, a man who can score quickly against both pace and spin (SR of 158 and 136 since 2020). His 100 v/s Sri Lanka in last year’s T20 World Cup was one of the best knocks of the tournament.
Phil Salt is an excellent backup at the top and has experience playing T20s around the world. Dawid Malan at #3 is probably England’s only “anchor” and although he is consistent, his strike rate of below 130 v/s pace seems like a misfit in this England line-up. In the middle order, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone are outstanding stroke makers. The fact that Livingstone has played the BBL also helps since he will be familiar with the conditions and has seen some of the Australian players more than others. One change England should be considering is to drop Ben Stokes from the playing XI. With the break he took, he has only played a handful of T20s in the last 2 years and he has never been an ace T20 batter. With batters like Harry Brook also available and his bowling returns being limited, there’s not much value that Stokes brings to England in this format.
In terms of batting depth, there is no team that comes to England. Nearly all the bowlers right up to numbers 9 and 10 can swing their bats and get some quick runs.
Bowling & Allrounders
For the powerplay, England have a number of options. Chris Woakes is handy when the ball is swinging and has a superb economy rate of under 6 in the Powerplay since 2020 (although he has played only 11 T20Is). David Willey and Reece Topley are also solid at the top and crafty Adil Rashid can bowl in the PowerPlay depending on the opposition. Rashid did a fantastic job versus the West Indies in the last T20 World Cup, but none of these 3 take a lot of wickets at the top. Yet the fact that they are all economical means England have bowling in the Powerplay covered really well.
Mark Wood, England’s quickest can consistently bowl 90 MPH or higher and hit the back of the length to keep batters uncomfortable. Wood will bowl most of his overs in the middle (Overs 7-15) and usually goes around 8 runs an over in this phase. Allrounders Moeen Ali and Liam Livingston will also roll their arm over in this phase, and while they have the tendency to go for runs occasionally, they provide a good balance to the side. Rashid is a fantastic T20 spinner and gives England a lot of flexibility. He is someone who picks up plenty of wickets (SR of 18.5) and can bowl anywhere from over 1 to 16 with an economy of under 8.
England’s key problem is the ability of their bowlers in the death overs. Amongst major teams since 2020, England has the worst economy in T20Is - the only team to go over 10-an-over consistently in this phase. Sam Curran has shown improvement in landing his yorkers, and the recent win in the 1st T20 at Perth versus Australia will give them some confidence but this could certainly be England’s achilles heal.
Form
In 2022, England have won 9 and lost 10 T2OIs (as of Oct 9th), but that’s primarily because they have given rest to certain players and trying players like James Vince and Sam Billings in some of these games. The other odd thing about England’s record since 2020 is that they have won 16 and lost 14 games when fielding first. They have a much better record batting first which feels odd considering the issues with their death bowling. A closer look tells us at least 5 of the 14 losses were by less than 10 runs and these matches were spread across months since T20Is are played sporadically - so it probably doesn’t make sense to read too much about this.
Overall, the form of the team picked is still quite solid and many of these players have played a lot of T20 cricket in Australia. With New Zealand and Australia the two key teams in their group, England should easily qualify for the Semis and will challenge whoever they face in that game.
NOTE: Unless otherwise mentioned, all stats are based on T20Is from 2020.