Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
Better than Dhoni?
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*Official* England in Australia (2 T20 & 7 ODIs)
- Thread starter GIMH
- Start date
Furball
Evil Scotsman
If I was in charge of one of the franchises, he's the one batsman I'd have targetted and broken the bank for. Has absolutely everything you want in a LO bat - rarely gets tied down because his judgement of singles is superb, is fast as **** between the wickets so will pressure the fielding side and turn plenty of ones into twos, which helps the scoreboard tick along quite nicely, and as the semi final vs Pakistan showed, if he needs to switch into hitter mode and clobber a few boundaries, he's pretty adept at doing that as well.
Big hitting in T20 is ridiculously over-rated: I'd be quite happy with a team of Michael Husseys batting for me.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Yes IMO.
Furball
Evil Scotsman
Good call, but for me, Hussey's speed between the wickets tips the balance in his favour. Plus I can't really remember Dhoni hitting a brilliant T20 knock.
vcs
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Dhoni is lightning between the wickets TBF.
Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
54th match: Kings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings at Dharamsala, Apr 18, 2010 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
Needed 29 off two overs, and got it with 2 balls to spare.
I doubt Hussey is quicker than Dhoni btw. He has 10 years on him.
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Goughy
Hall of Fame Member
It was an excellent game. So much happened. I must admit, I got a little excited watching the Aussie quicks open up and the red speedo flash virtually every ball. The ball was being pinged down at lightening speed and coming off the bat even quicker.
Watson was excellent and fair play to Woakes who held his nerve like a champ.
Another reason why T20 is great is that it, in combination with us using Barmy Army chants and abusing Watson, got my 4 and 5 yr old excited about cricket when they live in the Philippines and spend their spare time playing Mario baseball on the Wii.
EDIT- On Wright-- Just noticed that since the beginning of 2010 he has played 12 T20Is. He has 2 wickets, 4 fours and 3 ducks. When you have nearly as many ducks as fours and more ducks than wickets (it is 3 ducks in 5 completed innnings) then your place maybe worth being looked at.
Watson was excellent and fair play to Woakes who held his nerve like a champ.
Another reason why T20 is great is that it, in combination with us using Barmy Army chants and abusing Watson, got my 4 and 5 yr old excited about cricket when they live in the Philippines and spend their spare time playing Mario baseball on the Wii.
EDIT- On Wright-- Just noticed that since the beginning of 2010 he has played 12 T20Is. He has 2 wickets, 4 fours and 3 ducks. When you have nearly as many ducks as fours and more ducks than wickets (it is 3 ducks in 5 completed innnings) then your place maybe worth being looked at.
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Furball
Evil Scotsman
Think most of the utterly brilliant Dhoni knocks I've seen have featured him going nuts and hitting boundaries all over the shop, so maybe I can't judge Dhoni against Hussey fairly. Although there was a period in 2009 where virtually every India win batting 2nd featured Dhoni taking them home unbeaten, so I'd definitely have him up there. Hussey just wins for me though.
zaremba
Cricketer Of The Year
By that reckoning, Australia played 2 specialist batsmen, Finch and Warner, or maybe 3 if you ignore Cam White's legspin. I think it makes no difference that Davies also keeps wicket, he merits a place on the strength of his batting alone. And while England didn't have many specialist batsmen, that's balanced by the fact that they had no real tail - without exception their bowlers are more than capable of biffing some quick T20 runs.
Not disputing that Wright's place is in jeopardy but he has shown himself to be a useful back-up bowler, capable of bowling if necessary at the death and doing so quite effectively. That's a useful resource to have in your team. He can also score quite quickly, although obviously he got a duck today.
Furball
Evil Scotsman
If you're batting him at 6 and not utilising his bowling, then IMO there's really no place for him in the side. Bopara at 6 brings the same useful back up bowling and far better batting.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Yeah, the only thing Wright's better than Bopara at (aside from fielding, which is a fair enough point I suppose) is death bowling, and he never bowls at the death for England anyway. Bopara's as good or better at every other facet of batting and bowling IMO.
Goughy
Hall of Fame Member
And who won the game? It is possible to have a lot of bowlers if your best batsmen happen to do both. I dont know enough about Australian cricket to say if that is the case. Certainly on face value they carried too much bowling into the game, even moreso than the English.
All the statistical evidence suggest though that T20 is a game for specialists. Your top 5 have to score the vast bulk of your runs, batting depth is nowhere near as important as in ODIs and 2-3 specialist bowlers that can prevent the opposition top order dominating. In 7 games in the T20 WC England won, batsmen 8, 9, 10, 11 contributed 17 runs in 7 games. Top order batting is more important in T20 than ODIs given the brevity of the format. Strike bowling is more important given the format also.
See my previous post about Wright- since 2010 and 12 T20Is- having 2 wickets, 3 ducks and 4 fours. If you think that a nothing cricketer like that deserves a place in the team then that is your opinion. I on the other hand would have someone that was actually competent at 1 thing rather than being sub-par at a number.
zaremba
Cricketer Of The Year
GF: I don't think batting him at 6 would be wrong - he's capable of scoring quick runs from there. His bowling wasn't utilised today, but that's because it wasn't needed - the point is, it might have been.
PEWS: He does sometimes bowl at the death for England. Not sure how often he's done it, but I do recall him having done it and done it well. You're right also that he's a good fielder, which does count for a fair amount in T20.
Would RavBop be better? Maybe, but the England set-up has faith in Wright and given how successful they've been with selections recently I'd be prepared to back their judgment for the time being.
PEWS: He does sometimes bowl at the death for England. Not sure how often he's done it, but I do recall him having done it and done it well. You're right also that he's a good fielder, which does count for a fair amount in T20.
Would RavBop be better? Maybe, but the England set-up has faith in Wright and given how successful they've been with selections recently I'd be prepared to back their judgment for the time being.