Amid Coronavirus pandemic, almost all countries are facing a lockdown and due to which cricketers, be it active or former, are forced to spend time at their homes. To pass the time, they are heading towards social media platforms to interact with fans and letting them know how they are spending the phase along with the future of cricket.
In the process, former Australia player Tom Moody participated in ‘The Pitch Side Experts’ podcast hosted by legendary Ian Bishop alongside cricket analyst Freddie Wilde. During the chat, the trio discussed ‘how to build a T20 batting order’.
When asked to pick the top seven best batsmen in the batting order, Freddie chose David Warner as the first pick and said: “He has to be there, he is the pre-eminent opening batsman in T20 cricket. His ability to hit boundaries and rotate the strike at the same time is a remarkable thing.”
Moody agreed with what Freddie said and stated: “I’m not disagreeing with that, he (Warner) is certainly opening the batting, and I would have Rohit Sharma as his partner. I think Rohit Sharma for a long period of time has proven that he is a match-winner, he has played in many successful teams and he brings the right and left-hand combination as well, so I’m throwing Rohit as Warner’s partner.”
For the number three and four positions, Moody picked Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, respectively, but he said that Kohli’s place depends on the game situation if the opening pair contributes well so I’ll have AB at number three.
“If I’m Kohli in my top-order then I’ve got Kohli at three and ABD at four and a game depending on circumstances, if we are getting off to a flyer then I’m having a very challenging conversation with Mr Kohli saying, ‘Virat, AB is going in now’,” said Moody.
For the next three positions, Moody along with Freddie and Bishop picked India’s Rishabh Pant, England’s Jos Buttler and West Indies’ Andre Russell. However, when Freddie went for Rishabh, Moody opined that they might consider another Caribbean Nicholas Pooran too, but in the end, they decided to have a go with Pant.
Freddie reckoned that the current Indian management has pretty much-underrated Pant. The analyst went on to add that Pant is a strong player of pace and spin and will strengthen the middle-order.
“At number 6 and 7, I’ll have Buttler and Russell. I think he (Buttler) can hit holes that Russell cant hit and there are not many holes that Russell cant hit. I think Buttler really compliments that finish so if you got those two facing the last 4-5 overs, it’d be an absolute nightmare for any fielding captain or bowling attack,” Moody added further.
Bishop also questioned the absence of No.1 T20 batsman Babar Azam from the abovementioned picks, to which Moody said: “Babar is competing with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. I’m a huge fan of Babar, but I think at the moment Kohli with a number of T20 hundreds that he has already scored and at the rate that he’s doing it along with the consistency, he (Kohli) is always in my team.”
