Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

No Root or Ali for England (or Woakes, but then he hasn't played a T20I for a couple of years now).

I wonder if it's tempting to open with Willey? As good as Roy has been in the 50 over format, his T20I average is only 20. Hales has been struggling too, no fifties since 2014.

WIth none of the usual all-rounders, main question for England is do they pick the extra bowler or not?

01 Hales, 02 Roy, 03 Malan, 04 Morgan, 05 Buttler, 06 Dawson, 07 Plunkett, 08 Willey, 09 Rashid, 10 Curran, 11 Wood
or
01 Hales, 02 Roy, 03 Malan, 04 Morgan, 05 Buttler, 06 Billings, 07 Dawson, 08 Plunkett, 09 Willey, 10 Rashid, 11 Wood

The first XI is quite a long tail, but the second offers no sixth bowling option.They played six bowlers in the warm-up, but as Willey opened they were still able to play a proper batsman at #6.

I reckon Vince will play, maybe at three.

Got to have six bowlers in T20. There's a lack of batting all rounders though.

Why not use Willey at the top of the order and just shuffle everyone down one space in the order - if he comes off then that's great and if he doesn't then things are pretty much as they were because I don't think he's as dangerous coming in at the end of the innings

Fully agree, Red. I seem to recall, in years past, Willey did well for the Scorchers - the pre-eminent BBL team - in the opening spot.

Willey is never going to be a long term option so shouldn't open

backfootpunch wrote:Willey is never going to be a long term option so shouldn't open

In T20 he might be - he does it in the domestic leagues to good effect and those leagues are not weak nowadays

I'd be tempted to give him a go. He won't always come off, but then that is true of pretty much everyone

This is cricinfo's idea of the XIs.

1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Sam Billings/Tom Curran/Sam Curran, 7 Liam Dawson, 8 David Willey, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Mark Wood

1 David Warner (capt), 2 D'Arcy Short, 3 Chris Lynn, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Ashton Agar, 8 Andrew Tye, 9 Kane Richardson, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Billy Stanlake

D'Arcy Short? Is that a wind up?

What's wrong with Greg or Gary?

Balance of the side looks off either way with that line up.

1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Sam Billings, 7 T Curran, 8 David Willey, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Mark Wood

1 David Warner (capt), 2 D'Arcy Short, 3 Chris Lynn, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Ashton Agar, 8 Andrew Tye, 9 Kane Richardson, 10 Travis Head, 11 Billy Stanlake

Actual sides.

Both sides a spinner light.

Big blow for England with Roy out early.

Another side of Dawid Malan. Carrying the batting in the T20.

Going to struggle to secure a place in the T20 side though.

Could do with Posh Sam and Malan batting for four overs here.

That didn't go very well.

Lord D'Arcey and Wee Davie should made short work of that.

What a wasteful finish to the innings by England - and isn't KP peeved about it? One of the best bits about it, really.