Kusal Perera – originally unsold – forces his way into the list, which also has Hasaranga and Pathirana among other expected names

Madushka Balasuriya21-Jul-20241. Andre Fletcher (Kandy Falcons)This season hasn’t been short of opening talent, with the likes of Dinesh Chandimal, Pathum Nissanka and Alex Hales all making strong cases, but it’s Fletcher’s consistency which has seen him win out. His 321 runs across ten innings have included three fifties and three further scores of 20 or more, all at a healthy strike rate of 158. His 22 sixes meanwhile are comfortably the most by a player this LPL.2. Kusal Perera (Dambulla Sixers)It was quite the surprise when Perera went unsold at the LPL auction, but when Dambulla’s ownership changed post-auction – there is a proviso that such an eventuality allows new owners to bring in new talent – he was among the first names on the wishlist. A duck in his first game proved to be a red herring, as next time out he struck an unbeaten 102 off 52 balls. One thing Perera has shown is that when he gets going it takes a lot to stop him. His strike rate of 169 is the best among the tournament’s top-ten run-scorers.Related

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3. Tim Seifert (Galle Marvels)Galle have proven to be the team to beat this season, and the 29-year-old Seifert’s form has been one of the primary reasons why. While his strike rate of 136.29 is lower than other batters on this list, it’s his ability to see an innings through that has proved so invaluable. Thrice he’s remained unbeaten, despite coming in at No. 3 – two of them were during a chase while the other was a 63-ball 104. Seifert’s reliability has given those around him the freedom to bat without fear.4. Avishka Fernando (Jaffna Kings)Avishka is not only the highest run-scorer this season, he is now the all-time highest run-scorer in the LPL. But while in previous years he’s done the damage at the top of the order, this year he’s been rejigged to a pivotal middle-order role at No. 4 – and taken to it like a duck to water. Striking well above his career strike rate, he’s scored five fifties across ten innings, showing a particular liking to pace. Only his propensity to get dismissed by spinners taking the ball away from him has held him back thus far.5. Kamindu Mendis (Kandy Falcons)Kamindu, who debuted for Sri Lanka in 2018, had been biding his time on the fringes for a while. It was this year, though, that he finally found his way into the national side consistently, and he has now carried that form into the LPL. Comfortable against both pace and spin, and striking at above 150, his middle-order exploits have invariably coincided with Kandy’s better batting performances. Add to this his handy ambidextrous spin, and you have a very unique utility player.ESPNcricinfo Ltd6. Isuru Udana (Galle Marvels)When Galle bumped up Udana’s base price of US$ 30,000 to US$ 100,000, despite being the only franchise to bid for him, the first reaction from many was disbelief. This was a 36 year-old fast bowler who hadn’t turned out for Sri Lanka since 2021. But perhaps they knew something the rest of us didn’t, as Udana rolled back the years. His adept variations have grabbed 14 wickets – many at the death – while with the bat, in four innings he struck two fifties – one, a 72 off 38 that nearly resulted in a miraculous come-from-behind win.7. Wanindu Hasaranga (Kandy Falcons)While not quite the needle-moving all-round masterclass of last season, when he was both the highest run-getter and the highest wicket-taker, Hasaranga has nevertheless impressed. His bowling was challenged this year by the more batter-friendly surfaces in Dambulla and Kandy but he managed to still prove effective, even if nine of his 15 wickets came across four games in the more spin-friendly tracks in Colombo. With the bat he was less consistent, only once – in a back-to-the-wall 65 off 32 – did he manage to scale the heady heights he is capable of.8. Shadab Khan (Colombo Strikers)Shadab had a torrid 2024 leading up to the LPL. In ten T20Is he picked up just one wicket (didn’t bowl thrice) at a dismal economy rate of 10.3, while with the bat his nine innings had brought about just two knocks of any substance. But this season in the LPL, while his batting still hasn’t been at its best, Shadab has been a legspinner reborn, topping the charts for wickets while keeping runs in check. He has taken three four-fors, including a hat-trick – and he might have had another too if not for the most suspect of DRS ball projections. He has utilised his pace, trajectory and variations expertly. Pakistan, you’re welcome.From bowling with the new ball to starring in a Super Over, Maheesh Theekshana’s done it all•SLC9. Maheesh Theekshana (Galle Marvels)Theekshana hasn’t summited the wicket-taking charts, nor has he been the most economical, but of all bowlers to have played as many games as him this season (nine), he’s the only one to have bowled his full allotment of overs. That not only speaks to how essential he has been, but also his versatility – regardless of game state, you can always call on Theekshana. Openers off to a flyer? Throw the ball to Theekshana. Power Blast over? Theekshana’s got one in the bag. Need to defend eight off the final over and then bowl the Super Over that follows? You get the picture.10. Binura Fernando (Colombo Strikers)Binura’s career used to be one of ifs and bu… actually, it was just one big if – if he hadn’t had so many injuries. Now it has become a career of whens. When will he get a consistent run with the national side? When will we all stop sleeping on him? The numbers, after all, speak for themselves: 13 wickets at an economy rate of 6.81 across nine LPL games, bowling primarily in the powerplay and at the death. Despite never really clocking above 130kph, batters regularly struggle to get him away due to his clever variations in length and pace. And if you’re worried about his fitness, he ended the season playing four games across five days. It’s time to wake up to Binura Fernando.11. Matheesha Pathirana (Colombo Strikers)Pathirana is the polar opposite of Binura, all action, all hype, all X-factor. No one is sleeping on him. And season long, he’s been all business. Fifteen wickets at an economy rate of 8.33 is great output – especially for the LPL’s record signing – but the way he has been utilised by Colombo should be the blueprint for any side he’s a part of. On several occasions he has bowled his four overs in one spell, after the 11th over or so. While his yorker is as devastating as ever, he looks to be adding more strings to his death bowling bow. His accuracy is also steadily improving.

Poor sales for Sunday’s decisive fourth day at Lord’s as fans begin to vote with their feet

Matt Roller01-Sep-2024It should have been a crowning moment on this sun-soaked Sunday afternoon in north-west London. Olly Stone backpedalled from mid-on to settle underneath a catch off Chris Woakes’ bowling, clinching England’s fifth consecutive Test win and their second series win of the summer.And yet, England’s players celebrated this 190-run victory over Sri Lanka in front of a swathe of empty seats. This was not a sign of Test cricket’s decline, but a retort from fans to the administrators who have spent years taking them for granted: with a starting price of £95, thousands upon thousands of tickets for the fourth day of the Lord’s Test went unsold.”It was kind of weird,” said Ollie Pope, England’s stand-in captain. “A few of us have been strolling in each day, and we were like, ‘Jeez, it seems quiet today.’ I’m not sure if people expected the game to be done by day four or what… It’s a shame it wasn’t a full house: it was obviously a good day’s play where we had to work hard for those eight wickets.”Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) were braced for a low crowd and estimated that around 9,000 people turned up to a venue that holds more than 30,000. The club committed to a review of fourth-day pricing while chief executive Guy Lavender cited England’s dominant win against West Indies at Lord’s in July – which took barely seven sessions – as a contributing factor.It is a paradox of Bazball: by accelerating the pace of Test matches, as part of a bid to make the format as attractive to fans as they can, England have inadvertently dented ticket sales for the fourth and fifth days. Twice in five Tests this summer, they have completed victory by mid-afternoon on the third day; the other three have all finished on the fourth day.And, on the rare occasions in the Bazball era when matches have gone to day five, the gates have invariably been thrown open for free, albeit with an enthusiastic take-up. This was most famously the case at Trent Bridge in 2022, when a final-day full house roared Jonny Bairstow to a heady, agenda-settting hundred against New Zealand.Related

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Pope suggested that the low turnout might owe to the “heavy schedule” this summer “with the Hundred, T20 Blast and a lot of Test matches as well”. Asked if England need more support from administrators, he said: “It’s not really for me to comment on… [but] it is great to have as many kids and families in as possible, and learning to love the game.”No matter England’s stated aims, the vagaries of the format can still leave fans short-changed. “We pride ourselves on wanting people to come into the ground and feel like they’ve had a really enjoyable day of cricket,” Joe Root said on Saturday – shortly after Pope had declined to bowl spinners in tandem under floodlights, thereby bringing the third day to a premature close.Lavender defended MCC’s reluctance to cut prices at short notice in a statement issued on Saturday. “It is difficult to dynamically discount tickets in hindsight when thousands of supporters have applied through our 2023 ballot process and paid the full price…” he said. “We will be paying particular attention to the structure of fourth-day tickets in our pricing reviews, given the way that Test cricket is now being played.”Even MCC’s attempts to make amends ended up backfiring. Prices were cut to £15 for adults and £5 for Under-16s from 3.45pm, but the discount was not advertised to the public ahead of time. As a result, there was no notable change in the size of the crowd in the final session.The club often make pronouncements about their concern for Test cricket’s future, most recently at president Mark Nicholas’ inaugural ‘World Cricket Connects’ forum. Yet by selling tickets for such extortionate sums – the empty seats in the top tier of the Grand Stand on Sunday were priced at £140 each – MCC are directly contributing to the sense of a format in decline.It is not as if MCC is desperate for money. The club reported a pre-tax operating surplus of £8.8 million last year, and will imminently be given a 51% stake in London Spirit by the ECB with an estimated value in the region of £60 million. Regardless, lower ticket prices may have ended up bringing in more revenue through fans’ matchday spending around Lord’s.Two weeks ago, Lord’s staged the Hundred final in front of crowds of 22,009 (women’s) and 28,860 (men’s) – both significantly more than watched England complete their win on Sunday. But it would be disingenuous to suggest the difference is a reflection of supporters’ preference: tickets for the Hundred were priced at barely one-third of those for the fourth day of the Test.Test cricket remains hugely popular in England: Sunday’s low turnout was something of an anomaly in a summer of strong ticket sales, despite low-ranked opponents in West Indies and Sri Lanka. When India arrive for a five-match series next summer, tickets will sell out even at premium prices.This is not a unique problem to Lord’s: there were empty seats in the Party Stand throughout the first Test in Manchester last week, and there are plenty of fourth-day tickets still available at The Oval for the third Test. But Sunday’s no-show should send a clear message: if fans feel they are being ripped off, they will vote with their feet.

Offspinner has found her place as a vital cog in England’s four-pronged attack

Valkerie Baynes12-Oct-2024From questioning whether she belonged in an England shirt to being part of one of the coolest girl gangs around, Charlie Dean has found her place.Boss of the off-spin department in England’s four-pronged spin attack at the T20 World Cup, Dean says she is at ease with her role in the team, no longer feeling like she has to fight for position or fear failure.”I’m certainly more self-assured now,” Dean told ESPNcricinfo in Dubai. “I probably doubted why I was even in the squad or even on the pitch to begin with. I felt like I was there on potential and I felt like every game I played was a trial almost, I had to impress otherwise that was it, it was all going to be over.”I’ve really matured into my role, into how I approach my cricket, because I love cricket but I always felt like if I did something wrong that was it. I really feel like I’ve grown as a person and as a player in terms of that self-confidence.”Related

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So far at the World Cup, 23-year-old Dean has taken three wickets at an average of 15.66 and economy rate of 5.87. That includes 2 for 22 against Bangladesh in England’s first match of the tournament, where left-arm spinner Linsey Smith marked her return to World Cup cricket after nearly six years with 2 for 11.Sophie Ecclestone, another left-armer and the long-time leader of England’s spin attack was wicketless in that game but took 2 for 15 against South Africa. Legspinner Sarah Glenn has taken two wickets across both matches, which England have won to remain the only unbeaten side in Group B.

“Although competitive sport is about that competition for places, it’s really lovely to be able to work together.”Charlie Dean

Helping the spinners is the fact that Enlgand’s first three games, including Sunday’s clash with Scotland, have been scheduled in Sharjah, where a low, slow pitch has played into their hands. Glenn, Ecclestone and Dean combined through the middle section of South Africa’s innings last Monday to take three wickets for 18 runs in the space of 3.4 overs after Smith had removed opener Tazmin Brits inside the powerplay.And Dean has learned, after working with England Women’s assistant coach Gareth Breese early in her international career and overcoming the disappointment of being overlooked for last year’s Ashes Test in England, that selection based on conditions is a positive, not a threat.”It’s really exciting to be in a place where you feel a bit more comfortable in a team, you know that you’ve got a role and it’s quite nice to feel relied on a little bit or to have that responsibility,” Dean said.”Glenny and I, a lot of the time early on, we were competing for the same place, but to be able to be in the team with her is really exciting because although competitive sport is about that competition for places, it’s really lovely to be able to work together.”Four out and out spinners is quite rare, but it’s a formula that’s working really well for us, especially out here with the lower bounce and the more pace you have on the ball, the quicker it goes away. We’re all really different spinners, and that adds another string to our bow.”Dean made her debut in the first of five ODIs against New Zealand during the English summer of 2021. In the second, she picked up 4 for 36 as the hosts won a rain-hit fixture in Worcester.Four months later, she made her T20I debut in another rain-affected game, the second match in that leg of the Women’s Ashes, where England reached 25 without loss before play was abandoned.It would be nearly a year before she played another match in the format, on the tour of West Indies in December 2022, and she took 4 for 19 in the second of five games, which remain her career-best figures in 31 T20Is to date. She has also played 34 ODIs and two Tests.”I’m just cherishing every moment,” Dean said. “We’re out here in Dubai and I’ve never been here before and playing for England, it’s really special and it’s something that I don’t want to lose.”But actually I realised, ‘okay, I’m not going to if I continue to do the right things and enjoy it in the way I am’. I’m excited now as to where I can get to, which feels like a bit of a flip of mindset. It is just experience, growing up. People come into their prime in their late 20s, in their 30s even, so a bit of perspective and having those conversations and being aware of your vulnerabilities, of your self-consciousness.”I’m being a bit more open about it and then people can be like, ‘you’re being ridiculous,’ they can check you and make sure that you’re going in the right direction. That’s really helpful and time is the biggest builder of confidence. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to grow on that journey rather than maybe falling off before I managed to. I’m certainly a different person and I’m so excited for where this England journey could go.”Charlie Dean celebrates a wicket with team-mates•ICC/Getty ImagesSpeaking on the eve of England’s match against Scotland, captain Heather Knight agreed that her team’s spin formula was a big plus.”Against South Africa, left-arm spin was a really good matchup,” Knight said. “The pitch we’re going to play on tomorrow is the pitch we played against South Africa. What having a broad squad does give us is the opportunity to chop and change based on match-ups, based on conditions, and we feel like whoever we do bring in can do a really good job.”Seam has still played a pretty big part in this tournament. That’s been pretty hard for us to get away and particularly in the middle overs seam’s been really tricky. It’s a little bit of a balance of working out what our best attack is or what the best attack to win a certain game in certain conditions is. There is an option to change it, but that four spinners has worked quite well for us.”

Jemimah Rodrigues, Laura Wolvaardt, Kate Cross, Shreyanka Patil, Tanuja Kanwar, Alice Capsey and Shweta Sehrawat on what they have learned about their Australian team-mates in T20 leagues

Interviews by S Sudarshanan 29-Sep-2024Out of the first 15 Women’s World Cups across the ODI and T20I formats, Australia won nine. Then they lost the semi-final of the 2017 50-over World Cup, which stung them so much that they changed the look of their line-ups – pushing up Alyssa Healy to open the batting being one of those – in a bid to get back to the winningest of ways.Since then, they have added another ODI World Cup and three more T20 World Cups to their cabinet. They also finished gold medalists at the inaugural Commonwealth Games women’s cricket competition in 2022. In short, they have swept it all – every single multi-team tournament since the start of 2018.How do Australia manage to build a winning mindset? What does it entail? And how do their players prepare for matches or deal with pressure? We asked players from other countries to tell us what they had observed about their Australian counterparts while playing alongside them in T20 leagues across the world.

Is there an Australian player you love watching play or train?

Kate Cross (*with Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham, Sophie Molineux in WPL; Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Phoebe Litchfield, Heather Graham in the Hundred): I think Phoebe Litchfield is probably one of the more fun players to watch at training. She often commentates on her batting, which can be hilarious at times, and she really puts a lot of time into her funky shots. So, it was interesting watching how she tries to develop and improve her game – even in the middle of competitions.Related

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I love watching Georgia Wareham go about her business. She’s a pretty quiet character off the field but she’s outthinking a lot of people on it. Her skill level is ridiculously high too, so having her as a team-mate recently has been something I’ve really enjoyed.Shreyanka Patil (with Perry, Wareham, Molineux in WPL): I enjoyed playing with Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham as fellow spinners. Even during practice, they were coming and helping me out, and asking questions as well, so it was a two-way learning.Laura Wolvaardt (with Gardner, Garth, Sutherland, Wareham, Litchfield, Mooney in WPL; Mooney, Garth, Wellington in the Hundred; McGrath, Wellington, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown in WBBL): Tahlia McGrath, obviously played a lot with her at [Adelaide] Strikers. I think she is a really good cricketer, good at everything – batting, bowling, fielding, captaincy. She is a really cool and humble person off the field as well.Alice Capsey (with Lanning, Sutherland, Jess Jonassen in WPL; Lanning, Sutherland, Kim Garth in WBBL; Amanda-Jade Wellington in the Hundred): Growing up, I was more attracted to the Jos Buttlers, Jason Roys, Charlotte Edwards. I wasn’t really Australian-driven, I didn’t know many of the players that well. But now it has been great to share the dressing room with someone like Meg Lanning. It is not just about their experiences but [observing] how they go about training, preparing for a game, what they look for, what kind of prep they do and just learning how they had done it themselves. I am never going to be same as a Lanning, but I can pick up on different things she does based on what works for me.Shweta Sehrawat walks out to bat with Alyssa Healy for UP Warriorz: “My first experience playing alongside Healy and Tahlia [McGrath]… I had to adjust a bit mentally, because in my mind they were my opponents”•Deepak Malik/BCCI

How has your impression of them changed from that of an opponent to a team-mate?

Capsey: You see these players on TV and you play against them, but it is nice to understand them as a person as well and just build really good relationships and have a relaxed conversation. Every time I have been in the changing room with Meg, she has been very open, very welcome. She is one of the cricketers who just knows her game so well.She’s been a good sounding board for when I have been playing for Delhi Capitals and Melbourne Stars. People don’t realise how valuable it is batting alongside her in the middle. At the end of the day, you can do all the training and have all the conversations off the pitch. But it is how they manage the in-game situations, which is one of the aspects that makes them so great. Meg’s one of those – she manages her innings so well. She knows what’s happening and is so in control. Being able to play alongside her is so amazing.Shweta Sehrawat (with Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath in WPL): It was a bit different for me. I always imagined wanting to play for India against Australians as opponents. But my first experience itself was playing alongside Alyssa Healy and Tahlia McGrath in the first season of the WPL. I had to adjust a bit mentally, because in my mind they were my opponents. But there was no fear, and I lapped up the opportunity to learn from them. I gelled better in the second season, so much so that I am in regular touch with Tahlia and we went out for dinner when I toured Australia as part of the India A side last month.Tanuja Kanwar (with Litchfield, Garth, Sutherland, Wareham, Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner in WPL): I used to watch Australian players only on TV before the WPL. But when I met them, I realised they are very chill people. I used to feel, “Oh, how do I speak to them”, but it was very easy when I met them and we became a team.Cross: I think it was just nicer to have Ellyse as a team-mate for once and not worry about how to get her out! But the beauty of changing from rivals to team-mates is that it gives you an insight into how and why they have got to the very top of their game. Also, just getting to know someone on a personal level – it almost makes me look forward to the Ashes more, knowing you’ve got mates to go up against.Meg Lanning, Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey at a Delhi Capitals event: Capsey says her understanding of the game has grown in the time she’s spent with Lanning•Bhushan Koyande/Hindustan Times/Getty Images

How do they train and prepare for a game?

Wolvaardt: The level of training and preparation at Strikers is equal to an international set-up, whereas our domestic systems are very much behind. They have an analyst, physio, strength and conditioning coach, a manager, because they are just so far ahead development wise. They have 200-300 players at a professional level every single day whereas we maybe only have the national side that is at that level of training.Cross: I didn’t notice any differences, but it’s their diligence that stands out the most. How well they train is admirable and is a huge indication of how consistent they are on the pitch because of how they train behind the scenes.Capsey: Everyone does it differently; someone like Meg does it differently to someone like Nat [Sciver-Brunt], who does it differently to someone like Marizanne Kapp, who does it differently to me or anyone else. Everyone has different things that works for them. Meg’s one of those people that’s so consistent, she just churns runs for fun, and it’s amazing to watch. You can also see the hard work that goes behind the scenes, how she goes about her net sessions and how specific she is. Then you get a pretty good understanding of the process that makes her successful.That is important in cricket. You are always going to fail more than you succeed. As a batter, more often than not, you are going to get out for low scores. It is about understanding and creating a process that works for you and allows you the best chance to be successful. There are so many variables that if you have your process it makes it a little bit easier.Kanwar: I am a bit superstitious; I don’t do knocking just before toss, but I do bowl a bit to warm up. With Australian players, I have seen that they prepare fully. They do knocking, take a few catches and do fielding drills, too, just to be ready in the match.Tanuja Kanwar: “I have noticed that the Australians do not get overly dejected [by defeat]. They are focused on what to do next and how to better the performances”•Prashant Bhoot/BCCI

How do they react under pressure?

Jemimah Rodrigues (with Lanning, Jonassen, Sutherland in WPL; Jonassen in WPCL; Sutherland in WBBL): Lanning is so calm and cool, even under pressure. I feel that is one of the biggest qualities a captain can have. Everyone’s under pressure, but if you see your captain calm, it just helps calm the entire team. That is an amazing thing with Lanning.Wolvaardt: They are very good under pressure. Just as you think they are about to finally lose a game, they find a way to win. They can find a way to win from any position. That comes with time and being exposed to those scenarios. It is like a momentum type of thing – the more you win in those situations, the more you will be able to win. It’s hard when you are in those situations and you lose ().Rodrigues: I think the one thing I will really take from Lanning is that she just knows what she’s doing. That’s what helps her be calm even under pressure.Cross: Nothing massively stood out that I wasn’t expecting, but Pez would be in the nets all the time. I’m now really not surprised she has that massive hotspot in the middle of her bat. She uses it that often!Sehrawat: I hadn’t really looked at Tahlia from that perspective, but come to think of it, I can recall one thing from during the A series. I was standing at slip, and against a left-arm spinner, she hit a lovely inside-out lofted shot that beat long-off. I then remembered her playing that shot on a few occasions before as well, so I now want to steal that shot and play it as adeptly as her.Capsey: Playing with Meg, I have learnt to manage my innings a lot better. The little bits and pieces that I have taken from her have been about my mindset and how I go about reading a game. She’s one of the most successful captains in world cricket – just how she reads the game, she’s good at speaking. She’ll tell you why she’s done certain things. She just doesn’t do it and you notice it, but she speaks to you and helps you understand why she’s done it. So, mindset and my understanding of the game and reading the game, I think, has a lot to do with playing and being in an environment with her. How to be ruthless once you are on top, I think she is good at that – sensing moments and pouncing at that.*Includes Australian team-mates in T20 leagues from March 1, 2023

Promotion up the batting order for Australia series would suit allrounder’s strengths

Matt Roller25-Aug-2024For any allrounder, being labelled “adaptable” is to be damned with faint praise. It is a familiar dilemma: their ability to contribute with both bat and ball tends to see them selected more often than if they were specialists, but often finds them shoehorned into roles to which they are poorly suited by teams who use them to balance their side.It has been the story of Sam Curran’s career as a T20I batter. Across a T20 career spanning nearly 250 matches, Curran has proven that he is a middle-order batter rather than a finisher, who thrives on responsibility and benefits hugely from the chance to get himself set. Yet England’s batting riches means he has rarely batted in their top five.The result is that Curran’s T20 batting record for England makes for grim reading: an average of 12.95, and a strike rate of just 118.26. In the Caribbean in December, England promoted him to No. 4 for the first time: he responded with 50 off 32 balls, his maiden half-century in T20Is. He was immediately pushed back down the order, and stayed there.Related

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Across his T20 career, Curran has batted at Nos. 3-5 in 98 innings, averaging 27.90 with a strike rate of 140.43; he has batted at No. 6-10 in a further 93, averaging just 15.98 and striking at 124.97. With England due to announce their white-ball squads for Australia’s tour in September on Monday, they face a call on Curran’s future: this is the time to back him or sack him.”He’s been so often used out of position in that No. 6 or 7 role,” Tom Moody, Curran’s coach at Oval Invincibles, said. “Sometimes players like Sam can be plugged as a ‘Mr Fix It’ because they’re good at everything. But if you’re chopping and changing that role constantly, you never know where you’re sitting… Sam, like all good players, likes responsibility.”In 2015, England dropped Ben Stokes from their World Cup squad after batting him at No. 8 in an ODI series in Sri Lanka; Paul Collingwood likened it to “telling Cristiano Ronaldo to play at right-back”. Even if Curran’s ceiling as a T20 batter is lower, it has felt like a similar waste for him to be languishing at No. 7 and 8 in a role that doesn’t suit him.Curran was named MVP in the men’s Hundred last week, as much for his middle-order batting as his 17 wickets. He batted at No. 3, 4 and 5, generally coming in soon after the powerplay, and showcased his new-found ability to clear the ropes consistently: he hit 17 sixes in the competition, second only to Nicholas Pooran.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();