Flexible thinking will be vital if England are to take T20 series
Hwinning the toss may help, but captain Eoin Morgan needs to be at his innovative best for tourists to beat India in decider
49 from 23 games and scores with alacrity to boot: a strike rate of 144. So, how can he be under pressure?
The Malan predicament is a window into how different T20 is to longer formats. The problem with Malan is not his average or strike rate – it is how he gets there. A Malan T20 innings is a high-wire act: the very care with which he begins creates the risk of absorbing dot balls and then getting out before he can make up for it.
In the past three games, Malan has been dismissed after facing between 17 and 23 balls. His innings in the fourth match – 14 off 17 balls while chasing 186 – was arguably of less use than a golden duck.
Over his first 10 balls in T20IS, Malan has a meagre strike rate of 105; Jason Roy’s, by comparison, is 139. Even more concerning is Malan’s reticence to exploit the powerplay, which is often critical on Indian pitches.
Of the 30 batsmen from Testplaying nations to face 100 balls or more during the powerplay since 2019, only two have slower strike rates than Malan’s 102.
Yet, Malan only has to look to his captain for a recent example of a batsman who has soared to new heights after learning to start his innings quicker.
Paul Collingwood, England’s assistant coach, suggested that Malan would remain at three.
“He has struggled a bit for rhythm on the wickets that we have played on,” Collingwood said. “He seems to have a strategy that works and has worked consistently – he has the power, his strike rate is up there, he ticks all the boxes.”
The idea of match-ups – essentially, getting the right bowlers to the right batsmen, and vice versa – permeates T20 more every day. England have spoken about the concept often in this series, which has informed their use of Rashid with the new ball – to turn the ball away from right-handers – and how Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan have shuffled between five and six. Morgan is a superior hitter of pace, so England have tried to maximise his scope for hitting quick bowlers at the death.
England’s best phase of their run chase in the fourth game also came exploiting match-ups intelligently. In the 14th over, off-spinner Washington Sundar aimed to turn the ball away from left-hander Stokes. He barely got a chance: right-hander Jonny Bairstow faced the first five balls, and smashed 17 runs hitting with the spin. In the next over, Rahul Chahar aimed to turn the ball away from right-hander Bairstow, but Stokes was on strike for the first four balls, looting 13 runs.
To manipulate match-ups, England need flexible thinking. Could Stokes or Morgan be promoted if left-hander Malan is at the crease? Given the presence of three lefthanders from five to seven, could Archer occasionally be elevated?
In India, England have shown threefifths of an outstanding World Cup attack, but bowling attacks can stand or fall on their weakest links. The best batsmen can face most balls; but the best bowlers are limited to 24 balls, the same as the fourth and fifth bowlers.
Chris Jordan – effectively, the fourth bowler – has been below his best, especially at the death. England have shared fifth bowling duties between Stokes and Sam Curran, not entirely successfully. Using Curran more aggressively, with the new ball, is one attractive option. Another is to recall Moeen Ali, who offers off-spin to complement Rashid’s leg-spin and is an electric hitter of spin to boot.
At times, the narrative about the importance of the toss in this series has been overblown. As India showed on Thursday, better cricket can trump worse coin-tossing.
Yet, in all floodlit T20s in India since 2016, chasing teams win 58 per cent: a sizeable advantage between evenly-matched sides. And so, for all his qualities, perhaps the greatest impact that Morgan’s captaincy could have on England winning the series is simply to call correctly at the toss.