Marcus Stoinis gave England a reprieve at the T20 World Cup and cricket legend Stuart Broad believes the team is more than capable of taking full advantage, even with one major flaw.
England’s campaign in the Caribbean and the USA looked as though it may end in the group stages after a washout against Scotland and defeat to Australia left their fate in others’ hands.
But Stoinis’s heroics, scoring 59 off 29 balls as Australia beat Scotland by five wickets with two balls remaining, ensured that England progressed to the Super 8s.
They meet USA on Sunday and Broad, who was part of the England side that won this tournament in the Caribbean back in 2010, insists there is no doubting the talent in the side led by Jos Buttler, which he believes could go all the way. The one thing that might stand in their way though, is a lack of left-handed batters at the top of the order.
“When I look at Antigua and Barbados, they are windy cricket grounds, generally a side wind,” said Broad, speaking as he launched the Small Business XI with Sage. “It means you can protect one side. You can get the right-hander hitting into the wind to the longer boundary. You can bowl slower into the pitch so they can only bowl that way.
“I like the addition of Reece Topley into the team, to give you that angle of attack that you can chuck down one side. But there is a weakness in the left/right-hand combinations of the batting unit. It’s just Moeen Ali and Sam Curran, Ben Duckett isn’t playing.
“As we saw against Australia when there was a short boundary one side, Adam Zampa could shut it down to the right-handers, bowling leg spin. The right-handers were hitting into the wind to the bigger boundary. That is an issue. I like Ben Duckett a lot. I think he’s a fine player, I’d have no question marks with him coming into the team. Who misses out is a very difficult question. And ultimately with the thumping win (over Oman), I don’t think the team will change much.
“You don’t bowl a team out for 47 and knock it off in 3.1 and start tinkering. But if you gave Jos Buttler and Motty (coach Matthew Mott) an option, they would probably want a left-hander in the top five.”
While England’s lack of left-handers at the top of the order is a concern for Broad, he believes that they have more than enough match-winners in their side to challenge anyone.
After a win over West Indies and defeat to South Africa, England need a win over surprise package USA to reach the semi-finals. And in a competition that has already thrown up a number of surprises – most notably the Americans progressing at the expense of Pakistan - Broad admits it is tough to choose a winner.
He added: “It is one of the hardest World Cups to pick for a while. When you spoke to experts before the World Cup started to pick the semi-finalists, I think everyone differed. England, on paper, have an extremely strong squad.
“The difficulty with picking a T20 winner is, I’ve always had the mindset in a Test match you need nine players out of your 11 to have a good week. In ODIs, it’s five. In T20s, really, it’s two. You need two players to have a good day and you can win the game. If someone gets 110 off 50 balls you are probably winning.
“So that is what makes it really difficult to predict. England definitely have those two players, India certainly do. South Africa do, they have a pretty star-studded lineup. They have had a pretty difficult time with the conditions, in New York the pitches have been difficult for their batters to fire.
"But if you get (Heinrich) Klaassen, (Quinton) De Kock, (Aidan) Markram, (David) Miller, on a pitch that suits, they are a dangerous team. So, there are a lot of teams that you feel could threaten and England are certainly one of them.”
International cricket legend Stuart Broad has teamed up with Sage, Official Insights Partner of The Hundred, to launch the Sage Small Business XI competition which offers ten small businesses a chance to win a share of £50k plus tickets to The Hundred Final. Enter now at sage.com/TheHundred