All-rounders are a much revered species in cricket and their value increases manifold when talking about T20 cricket. They bat at 5-6 providing the difficult job of closing out the innings with big hits and they are entrusted to bowl to batsmen in full flow and expected to get them out. England, at the moment, is blessed with several all-rounders who give them the flexibility to tinker with their playing 11 depending on the opposition and the conditions. Let us glance at the impact that the English all-rounders are likely to make in the WT20 in India.
Ben Stokes
England were desperately crying out for a good all-rounder since the retirement of Andrew Flintoff and during their disastrous Ashes tour of 2013/14 where they were blown away 5-0 in the face of Mitch Johnson, rose Ben Stokes. He blazed away to a century at Perth and he bagged wickets in almost every innings. He was the find of the tour and after a minor slump in 2014; he has risen again to firmly take his place in the lower middle order for England in all the formats of the game.
He is a clean striker of the ball and is not intimidated by a challenge. Capable of playing all around the ground, he showed his audacious hitting prowess by clobbering a 258 off just 198 deliveries in a test match against South Africa. He also made two quick-fire half centuries in the 5 match ODI series that followed – all this, in addition to the numerous wickets that he took along with his equally dazzling fielding efforts. Stokes is a high impact player and he will be the most important player from an English point of view who can win them a game with either the bat or the ball on his own.
Impact Rating – 8.5/10
Chris Jordan
Chris Jordan embodies the perfect all-rounder and a perfect Twenty20 cricketer - bustling medium pace bowler, a hard hitting batsman down the order and a magnificent athlete anywhere on the field. However for all his attractive qualities, he has often lacked in consistency and has thus far failed to deliver on his true potential. He was way below par in the three ODI matches that he played against South Africa recently picking up just a solitary wicket but he came back roaring in the first T20I to claim 3 wickets in his 4 overs while also going at less than 6 runs per over.
Jordan is a lively bowler who looks to befuddle the batsmen with his changes of pace and his batting is all about hard hitting and he is someone who does not take a backward step and does not avoid a battle. He has played 10 T20I matches for England and taken 12 wickets at an economy rate which is on the higher side of 8 runs per over while he has made 95 runs at a strike rate of almost 130.
Impact Rating – 7/10
England also has Moeen Ali, who is also a genuine all-rounder, bowling off spin and who will be an important cog in the English line up. Stokes and Jordan, along with Moeen Ali are all players that can have a great impact on the game and possess the talent to change its course in matter of a few overs.
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
No comments:
Post a Comment