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Batsmen who spent their career in the wrong position

S

subshakerz

International Coach
Which batsmen suffered by being played in a position in the batting order ill-suited to their game, or were more suitable in a different position?
 
Silver Silva

Silver Silva

International Regular
Mahela Jayawardene in white ball cricket.

Spent most of his career in the middle order to accommodate other players.
Always felt that his ability to find gaps and score big runs was not utilized enough by Sri Lanka in ODI cricket.
He should have partnered Jayasuriya instead of Atapattu, and Dilshan instead of Tharanga ..

In 34 knocks opening the batting he scored 1376 ODI runs @43.00 at a SR of 91.43 which is significantly better than his overall record of 33 at a SR of 78

In T20 , 23 knocks opening the batting he averaged 40.60 at a SR of 138.10 , compare that to his overall career where he averaged 31 at a SR of 133
 
mackembhoy

mackembhoy

International Regular
As I'm England centric

Joe Root at 3 and Ian Bell batting higher than 5

Bairstow ever batting above 7 was also a mistake. Even if he ended up having his best year at 5/6

The flip flopping up and down the order for him has made him end up with one of the worst records for 100+ tests.

We should have stuck with Stokes 6, Bairstow 7 and Moeen at 8.
 
L

LangleyburyCCPlayer

U19 Captain
mackembhoy said:
As I'm England centric

Joe Root at 3 and Ian Bell batting higher than 5

Bairstow ever batting above 7 was also a mistake. Even if he ended up having his best year at 5/6

The flip flopping up and down the order for him has made him end up with one of the worst records for 100+ tests.

We should have stuck with Stokes 6, Bairstow 7 and Moeen at 8.
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The shocking thing is that Root was still better as a #3 and even as an opener than anyone we tried before the current top 3, I think you have to credit Baz and Stokes for sticking with Crawley and recalling Duckett years after his poor start in Test cricket. Pope remains an enigma, but he goes very big occasionally and does average 43 at #3 when he was struggling in the middle order
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

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Silver Silva said:
Mahela Jayawardene in white ball cricket.

Spent most of his career in the middle order to accommodate other players.
Always felt that his ability to find gaps and score big runs was not utilized enough by Sri Lanka in ODI cricket.
He should have partnered Jayasuriya instead of Atapattu, and Dilshan instead of Tharanga ..

In 34 knocks opening the batting he scored 1376 ODI runs @43.00 at a SR of 91.43 which is significantly better than his overall record of 33 at a SR of 78

In T20 , 23 knocks opening the batting he averaged 40.60 at a SR of 138.10 , compare that to his overall career where he averaged 31 at a SR of 133
Click to expand...
Might have been better for Jayawardene but not sure it would have been better for the team. IIRC Atapattu spent a lot of time in ODI cricket playing in the middle order anyway to accommodate Jayasuriya/Kaluwitharana etc. And Tharanga was pretty prolific.

I think most batsmen in ODIs post 2000 would have been better off opening or top 3 because it's been the best place to bat in general, unfortunately not everyone can open. Someone has to do the middle order roles
 
OverratedSanity

OverratedSanity

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Sehwag and possibly dravid ,but only in overseas tests. Sehwag shouldve batted down at 5/6. The refusal to be flexible with the batting order meant Sehwag was often a sitting duck in conditions where the ball moved off the straight. Hed have been so much better coming in to bat down the order after 3-4 solid batsmen who'd wear the shine off the new ball. He'd have effectively been our Gilchrist ,demoralising tired bowlers or counterattacking when the ball stopped swinging around,and it really annoyed me we never did it. Especially considering his maiden hundred came from number 6. Dravid,as a great player of the moving ball would've fit right into the opening spot he vacated and done a much better job setting a platform for the rest.
 
Q

Qlder

International Debutant
Steve Smith. He should have never given up his #3 spot to Labuschagne and he's just made it worse by choosing to open
 
Burgey

Burgey

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Also, Arun Finch should never really have been near a test spot at all, but when he did play if he'd been given a shot down the order I think he could have made a decent contribution. He was nevert going to make it as an opener.
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
Q

Qlder

International Debutant
Coronis said:
He didn’t. He last played at 3 in 2017, Marnus didn’t debut til the end of 2018. Even before then he was already playing mainly at 4, at best splitting between the two.
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Oh yeah, I totally forgot about Khawaja moving to #3 before opening. Doesn't change the Smith as Opener being totally wrong so far though (time will tell)
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
Qlder said:
Oh yeah, I totally forgot about Khawaja moving to #3 before opening. Doesn't change the Smith as Opener being totally wrong so far though (time will tell)
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I suppose his rationale could be “it helped Usman get out of his slump, maybe me too”
 
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