Evolving door to open for Banton
ENGLAND are contemplating dishing out a couple of debuts for their first one-day international as world champions on Tuesday.
One of the major objectives for the team hierarchy at the start of a new World Cup cycle that concludes with the tournament in India in 2023 is to expand the pool of players for ODIs and allow their senior limited- overs players to focus on Twenty20 cricket, with two World Cups in that format scheduled over the next 20 months.
It means consideration is being given to playing Tom Banton and Matt Parkinson, two of those blooded in the 3-2 T20 win in New Zealand last autumn, for the first couple of matches of the three- game series against South Africa that begins with a day-nighter in Cape Town on Tuesday.
The presence of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow at the top of the order, allied to the fact that middle-order duo Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler are missing, would mean Somerset’s Banton — whose hitting as an opening batsman at the Big Bash League this winter has earned a new two-year contract with Brisbane Heat — slotting into an unfamiliar role at No 6.
But there is a school of thought that asking one of the country’s most gifted ball-strikers to operate outside his comfort zone would be good for his development.
Equally, Lancashire legspinner Parkinson could be challenged to take the one spin berth ahead of Adil Rash id and Moeen Ali. Yesterday, the 23- year-old responded to the pressure of bowling in a manufactured scenario against a Cricket South Africa Invitational XI by taking three wickets in five balls.
It was not enough to stop the hosts cantering to their target of 85 in 10 overs after Eoin Morgan requested to halt a notional chase of 347 to manufacture some pressure.
Parkinson’s county colleague Saqib Mahmood bore the brunt of Jacques Snyman’s muscular approach when, with 30 runs required off three overs, he disappeared for consecutive sixes in an over that cost 22.
Earlier, Bairstow hit a hundred against a team comprised of players surplus to the requirements of South Africa’s six one- day franchises. Bairstow retired after reaching three figures from 83 balls, including four sixes, and is ready to prove a point after featuring in just one of six Tests this winter. He said: ‘ I don’t feel I need to talk about my Test cricket today. I am concentrating on Tuesday, opening the batting and keeping wicket in white-ball. That’s at the forefront of my mind for the next two weeks. Then we reassess and go again.’
One place that evokes fond Test memories for the Yorkshireman is Newlands, scene of his maiden hundred in 2016. His second international there next week coincides with the start of a period in which England, according to Bairstow, will be the team everyone wants to beat.
‘When you have got a title on your head that makes people want to beat you — even more so than usual,’ he said. ‘It’s part and parcel of where we are now. Everyone is going to come hard at us, South Africa to start with and then all the way through.’
HEATHER KNIGHT steered England to a superover win over Australia in a T20 thriller in Canberra.
Captain Knight smashed 78 off 45 in England’s 156 for four — then the Aussies made 156 for eight to send it to a decider. Sophie Ecclestone conceded just eight off her over before Knight slapped Ellyse Perry for two boundaries as England won with two balls to spare.