20 Mar / 2016(398)… T20WC-Batting order predicament for Aussies.

Batting order predicament for Aussies.

Shane Watson recently scored his maiden T20 century as an opener, and unbeaten 124 against India at SCG.
Yet one feels he should bat in the middle order and not open the batting.
Reason being his lesser scoring shots. Although overall scoring rate is healthy at 49.33/100 balls but his boundary rate and lesser scoring shots are far less. Unless he is been told to play an anchor role, and bat through 20 overs he should drop down the order at bat beyond 5.
The question here would be, who would replace him to open with Khawaja. The answer would be Smith or Nevill(if you are keeping the same batting group) either setting or chasing. It is always tempting to revert back to Warner, but he is someone who can be explosive in the middle order, especially in this format. His scoring rate in terms of lesser scoring shots and boundaries is well balanced, and can play any type of bowling.
However if selectors opt to make changes than Aaron Finch is the perfect choice to open the batting.
Below is batting performance in phase one(powerplay overs)Phase two performance
T20-A1T20-A2
Phase three performanceLast phase performance. This is a concerned area for Australia. Teams tend to lose a lot of wickets as they try to score runs anyway/anyhow. If one of the top order is still batting in this phase than chances of scoring big or chasing successfully is very high. Watson has not lost his wicket in this phase (last 5 overs). His stats below (42 runs) came when he opened the batting and remained unbeaten. It suggest he can be explosive in last 5-overs. The question one needs to ask is, which middle order batting position will suit his performance!.
T20-A3T20-A4
All data taken from last 8 T20I games played by Australia. Starting from one-off game in Cardiff against England last August.

 

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