ODI Squad vs India - Bethell opening?!
The new ODI squad being announced has a few questions. Main one is around Bethell opening. Personally I am a massive fan and have been thinking they should do this for a while now as it allows them to balance their side way better.
With the new side, a potential XI is: Duckett, Bethell, Root, Brook (c), Buttler (wk), Curran, Jacks, Dawson/Atkinson (Overton when fit), Archer, Rashid, Mahmood/Tongue
Reason this is good imo is that our side has been a bowler light for a while with Bethell and jacks having to the fill the 5th bowler quota if we picked a specialist opener like Jamie smith or Crawley. Whilst theyre both handy spinners, they can’t consistently bowl 10 overs without going for a lot (as we saw against SA last summer) and also means our 8-11 bowlers have to bowl 10 overs each game (so what happens if one get injured or is having a bad day??). It worked in Sri Lanka cause they were slow turning pitches where we could bowl root too and also we had an extra all rounder anyway with Rehan opening, but that’s not a long term option.
With this balance, we return to the balance we had in our golden ODI years in 2017-19 with Stokes 6, Moeen 7. Whilst jacks and Curran are arguably both steps down in both bowling and batting at the moment, the balance still works. Curran has become, as many predicted, more of a batter who bowls and can give you 5-7 overs a game. He’s been batting at 3/4 in t20s for a while so 6/7 in Odis gives him similar time to build an innings then go for it at the end. Jacks is the same at the moment and his batting down the order has worked well so far as his tendency for cameos is much better at 7 then opening. It then puts less pressure on the main bowlers and allows us to pick an extra spinner like Dawson or Rehan at 8 instead of a seamer like Overton or Atkinson if it spins. It’s also nice to have the same all round pair at 6-7 in both Odis and t20s.
But what about Bethell. Well, there’s a few reasons this works for me. A) he’s opened before at U19 level and a little in franchise stuff so he’s clearly used to it. B) he’s got the technique - he needs to improve it at test level but he lines up well and has looked the part in the Odis he’s played so far. C) he has a tendency from what I’ve seen to struggle to rotate the strike early on (especially in tests) and often gets going with boundaries. This obviously works well as an opener in Odis as he can get set for a few overs and then like Roy and bairstow, him and Duckett can start motoring overs 5-10.
It also gives Brook more time in the middle which in Odis isn’t a bad thing (and he’s batted 4/5 for a while now anyway so it isn’t a change) and moves Jos up one which isn’t a bad thing given his experience and class.
Squad wise Coles for me is a jacks back up, Rehan is a drinks carrier and Rashid back up/Jacks back up and the pacers will be rotated. Dawson is slightly surprising but should bat 8 if it looks like a spinning pitch and could be swapped with Atkinson at 8 on a seamer friendly pitch.
Big ramble there but overall I’m happy with the squad and likely decision to open with Bethell. Way better balance for the side if Curran bats 6 and Jacks 7 (or other way round it doesn’t matter really). What do you guys think though?