T20 cricket, without doubt, is one of the sport’s most crowd-pleasing formats. You may ask why? Well, the fast-paced action and the tight contest between bat and ball, make for a fascinating watch. Here at Keith Prowse, we wanted to take a closer look at one half of what makes the T20’s so great, the batsmen. These guys are responsible for bludgeoning ball after ball after ball, trying to score as many boundaries and runs as they can.
In this blog we’ll be covering the current and past best players, what skills are required to succeed and who’s the best in class for England.
Who’s the best in the World?
Currently, Pakistan’s Babar Azam is the man at the top of the rankings with a rating of 805 points. Azam is followed by his compatriot Mohammad Rizwan, on 798 points. Shortly behind him is South African, Aiden Markram on 796 points; then England’s Dawid Malan is next on 773 points.
October brings the next instalment of the T20 World Cup, we can’t wait to see these batsmen play their part in Australia. Over the years there have been so many talented players that have excelled in the shorter format. Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson, to name a few. Kevin Pietersen was another who was widely renowned for his destructive and expansive batting style.
Skills required to succeed
To succeed as a batsmen in the shorter format of the game you need to be strong and powerful, yet agile at the same time. One of the key things you need to be able to do as a batsman is hit the ball hard and a long way, and to do this you need to be able to create a lot of bat speed. This is where the agility comes in, as the speed often comes from the wrists. One of the best players in the world at using their wrists to create speed and power is England’ very owns Jos Buttler.
Best in class for England
England have an extremely talented batting line up and that’s one of the reasons they are the number one side in the world. Opening the batting is Jason Roy and Jos Buttler, together they create one of the most destructible opening pair in the world. They can score all around the ground and often back themselves to clear any boundary rope from ball one. Dawid Malan who often bats at three is currently the fourth best rated T20 batsmen in the world and rightly so, the left hander often makes the game look so easy, helping guide England to many a victory. Next up is the captain, Eoin Morgan; Morgan on his day, is as destructible as any player and some of his go to shots are the slog sweep and the pull shot. England also have some up-and-coming talent who are trying to earn their way into the side; most notably Liam Livingstone who is a seriously big hitter – he’s definitely one to watch for the future. Also in the ranks are Tom Banton and Phil Salt who have both enjoyed some game time in the recent series out in the West Indies.
If you want to see what all the excitement is about, join us for the IT20 at Edgbaston against India or the Vitality Blast T20 fixtures at both The Kia Oval and Edgbaston. Find out more below!
