England told to axe Ben Stokes or Dawid Malan as T20 World Cup batting is ‘not working’
Mark Butcher believes England’s current batting line up at the T20 World Cup is ‘not working’ and has claimed they should drop either Ben Stokes or Dawid Malan.
England are well-placed to reach the semi-finals after an excellent win over New Zealand and they tinkered with their line-up after two lacklustre displays against Afghanistan and Ireland. After a brilliant opening partnership worth 81 between Jos Buttler and Alex Hales, England moved Stokes and Malan down the order as they tend to play the ‘anchor’ role and start slowly before teeing off at the back end.
However, the likes of Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone are more explosive strikers who look to hit sixes from ball one. And both Stokes and Malan have struggled at the World Cup so far, with Stokes scoring just 16 runs in three innings and failing to hit a single boundary.
Malan, meanwhile, scored 18 off 30 balls against Afghanistan and 35 off 37 against Ireland and has struck just two fours. And with both players striking at 84.21 and 82.35 respectively, Butcher feels one of them should be axed so England can play an extra bowler.
“I don’t think [England’s batting] is working, and I made this point before a ball was bowled in the tournament,” Butcher said on the Wisden T20 World Cup Daily podcast.
“For me, what happened [against New Zealand] was good, obviously, because England moved their resources around.
They got off to the perfect start in the first ten and got their better hitters or better strikers I suppose to come up the order.
“But what it illustrates is, if Dawid Malan isn’t going to bat if you get off to a good start and if Ben Stokes is going to end up batting down at, whatever six or seven, then one of them shouldn’t be playing right? It’s as simple as that.
“On the evidence of [the New Zealand game] you would say one of the three left-handers ought to probably miss-out. Allowing England to bring in another specialist bowler and they would still have the resources they need. For me, Moeen Ali plays, and it’s between Stokes and Malan.”
