Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali bring a dynamism to England’s bowling which bodes well for the rest of the tournament
Back on course after compensating very competently for their mad hour of bowling against Ireland, England under Jos Buttler have three particular strengths – and, with a bit of luck, each strength will play a significant part in the next three matches which they have to win if they are to hold aloft the T20 World Cup for the second time.
One is the depth of England’s batting, so deep that there is not a vast amount to choose between their top eight for hitting ability. The second is the pace of Mark Wood, who has been the fastest bowler in this World Cup to date. The third is the variety in England’s attack, which has so far consisted of four seamers and three spinners.
So many spin bowling resources is a novelty for England in white-ball cricket. In the good old days – or the stodgy, unenterprising ones – they would bash away with four or five seamers and one finger-spinner. Even with Joe Root supplementing Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali more recently, England have deployed three spinners in only 60 out of their 770 one-day internationals.
An attack boasting three spinners used to be a rarity for England in T20 internationals too – until Liam Livingstone worked his way into the XI alongside Rashid and Moeen. In Melbourne last week, Livingstone saved England’s bacon in that disastrous qualifier against Ireland; or at least he pulled them back into the game with three wickets after the seamers had burned the meat.