Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey
Key areas for WI & SL to work on ahead of T20 World Cup | A few areas for West Indies & Sri Lanka to work on ahead of the T20 World Cup
The various T20I series we are going to witness from now on will have significant importance keeping an eye on the upcoming World T20. Every team has something to think about; therefore these series will provide teams with a golden opportunity to fill the existing loopholes in their respective sides.
Talking about the West Indies team, they have lost 13 of their last 20 games including defeats to Afghanistan and Ireland, which is obviously not a great sign. Similarly, the Sri Lankan team has failed to register a single win in the 7 T20Is they have played after the historic series victory against Pakistan back in 2019. It’s evident from these facts that both of these teams have several areas of concern.
In this article, I am going to mention those areas to work on for both of sides in the upcoming face off between them, starting on Wednesday evening in the West Indies.
WEST INDIES: BATTING IN THE PP, BOWLING IN THE MO
Starting with the home side, i.e. West Indies. I see a contrasting difference between their batting in the powerplay in the 13 games they have lost and in the 5 games they have won, out of their last 20 T20Is.
In the games they have lost, the Windies batsmen have scored 469 runs with the bat (I have excluded extra runs conceded by the bowling team) and they have lost 39 wickets in this phase. This translates to 3 wickets on an average in the powerplay in these 13 games. The cumulative SR of the Windies batsmen is just 100.21. They have consumed more than 7 deliveries (bpb=7.09) to hit a single boundary in the PP. Also, they have played 20.30 dot balls in the first six overs on average.
On the other hand, in the 5 games they have won, the cumulative SR of their batters in the PP is an impressive 145 and they have lost just 2 wickets in that phase. So, they need to ensure a good positive start in the PP in the upcoming series against Sri Lanka.
The next thing that has hurt them recently is their bowling in the middle overs. In the 13 games they have lost, the West Indies bowlers conceded 964 runs at an ordinary economy of 8.56. Moreover, they have given more than 100 runs four times in between the 7th and 15th over, which is definitely a serious concern. They have picked a total of 22 wickets in this phase, which indicates just 1.69 wickets per innings in the middle overs. So, they have not been able to keep things tight where it is expected to do so, neither have they picked wickets regularly. They have let the opposition batsmen settle in the middle overs and go bonkers at the death.
SRI LANKA: BATTING IN PP AND MO, BOWLING IN THE PP
Now talking about the Sri Lankan team. They have lost 7 consecutive games since the series victory against Pakistan. But, more importantly, they were unable to even give a fight to the opposition in most of those T20Is.
One of the primary reasons of this kind of abysmal performance is their overall batting. In these 7 games, the SR of their batters in the PP (excluding extras) is just 100.79. They have lost 18 wickets in this phase, which indicates more than 2 wickets on an average per innings they have lost in the PP. Their dot ball percentage is 54.36 and they have taken 6.63 balls to hit one boundary in the PP. So clearly, they haven’t been able to get the ideal start for a T20.
Their misery in the PP continues in the middle overs as well. The batters have got 426 runs from these 7 games in the MO phase and their cumulative SR with the bat is just 112.69. They have also found it difficult to hit boundaries, which is evident from their huge balls per boundary figure of 10.5.
In the bowling department, their bowling in the PP has been a major issue. The Sri Lankan bowlers have conceded 386 runs at a poor economy of 9.16, picking just 2 wickets in the PP phase in the last 7 matches. The number of balls bowled by them to concede one boundary in the PP is just 4.42. So, they need to keep things tight in the PP and pick wickets up front.
These are the primary mistakes both the teams have made in the T20Is recently and they should look to rectify these things in the upcoming series between them. Do you feel these two sides have anything else to work on? Share your thoughts!
Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today.
