The T20 Final
Correct me if I am wrong but if England win on Sunday this will be the only World Cup trophy they have won twice. We have certainly mastered the grammar of T20 cricket and much is due to Andrew Strauss who put the white ball game high up the priority list. When he became Middlesex captain he engaged the issue of big personalities in Phil Tufnell. He certainly places esprit de corps above individual performance. Not only has Kevin Pietersen fallen by the wayside but the two drivers of the bowling attack at test level Jimmy Andersen and Stuart Broad too. To replace them comes a cadre of youngsters who attack the ball from the start. You cannot build an innings slowly a la Cook but have to go gung-ho as Roy did. The West Indies in Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and the hero of the hour Lendel Simmons have too a line up of batters that can destroy bowlers.
As Tom Hollingworth has observed whatever we test purists feel, the T20 game is here to stay. When England lost its moral authority and governance switched to the sub-continent the game was bound to change. The Indian board have not even bothered to announce the Test schedule for the winter England tour and will not do so until May. Unlike the T20 it will be played in empty stadia. In Test match cricket there is a dearth of top class spinners. However one of the most successful white ball teams, New Zealand did not play speedsters Trent Hoult or Tim Siuthbee but three spinners.
A young team is necessarily more athletic in the field. The prototype T20 player is a Chris Jordan, a superb fielder, a stock bowler and a crash bang wallop batter. He is just short of Test standard but an integral T20 player. In the past his inability to be Test class might have influenced his T20 selection but not now. We bat now to number ten with David Willey whom I saw win a game virtually single-handed with the bat in the T20 quarter final for Northamptonshire against Sussex.
Game on.
