T20 Blast Tactical Review

A few areas where teams could sharpen up...

I’ve watched a lot of the T20 Blast so far and it’s been fascinating to see it play out.

One of the main areas of my focus is looking for lower-profile, younger talent which can have the potential to play franchise cricket at some stage in the future, while I also spend a lot of time making notes of strategic decisions from teams.

These could be either pre-tournament (recruitment) or in-match strategy, and I thought for my next post I’ll write about a few of the things which have caught my eye.

Starting off with recruitment, Middlesex.

Currently lying third bottom of the South Group at this early stage, Middlesex again look to have an uphill task to qualify to the knockout stages. They have been unfortunate to lose Max Holden to England Lions (although I would question why Lions takes precedence over the Blast - particularly when the player is not centrally contracted), but I want to highlight some additional decision-making from the county.

This mainly focuses on what I perceive to be a lack of gap analysis performed via the recruitment of Kane Williamson. At this stage of his career, Williamson is not a T20 great, even at this level. He’s still an amazing longer-format player, but the two things aren’t the same. I’d also question whether Williamson sells tickets. I can only think of a handful of non-India players who might sell tickets at any sort of volume, and Williamson for T20 isn’t one of those.

The problem is that Middlesex have regularly been one of the highest-conceding teams in the tournament over recent years for both boundaries and 200+ scores. While the recruitment of Josh Little is a positive step towards rectifying this, I do feel that they’d have been better off with using Williamson’s overseas spot on another pacer. While Noah Cornwell has talent, I would have liked the certainty of 12 strong overs from Tom Helm, Little and another overseas pacer.

Williamson’s inclusion also has a side impact on Joe Cracknell - the first player in this post that I want to discuss in terms of lacking opportunity. Cracknell has done fine in recent years for Middlesex (ave 23/SR 133 in his career, at the age of 25) and is banging on the doors of the management with recent scores of 97(61), 124(58), 98(56) and 64(34) out of a total of 147. The question is, are the Middlesex management listening to Cracknell’s knocks on the door? I’m not sure what else he can do.

When recruiting overseas players, it’s always useful to look at either/or scenarios and groupings of players. For example, what would have benefited Middlesex more - Cracknell & an overseas pacer or Williamson & Cornwell?

I know what my answer would be.

When I watched their match against Birmingham on Sunday night, it was clear that Derbyshire were another one of those teams who needed pace bowler reinforcement. Yes, they had Zak Chappell out, but they still looked short in that department regardless.

I have more sympathy for Derbyshire because this is where counties have their hands tied a bit by needing players to play multiple formats. Don’t get me wrong, I think Caleb Jewell was a good signing, he is a very good player and continues to do well for Derbyshire, but is the difference between him and Harry Came bigger than the gap between an overseas pacer and their lowest-level domestic pacer? I’m not sure it is.

Another team who have struggled with their T20 recruitment consistently over recent years, in my view, is Yorkshire. The wicket-keeping spot has particularly been an issue for them, and continues to be so. Jonny Bairstow going to the IPL and seemingly now being injured hasn’t helped, but in recent years he was rarely available anyway and they seem to have had long-term issues solving this problem.

If I’m working for a team facing Yorkshire, my messaging is simple. Front-load your best bowlers (or go with off-spin if Malan and Lyth are batting together) and look to take early wickets, because their 5+ in the batting order is about as mediocre as you’ll see at this level.

Birmingham were too good for Yorkshire on Friday night at Edgbaston, despite some curious tactical choices.

George Garton was given just one over despite early assistance with the new ball, and I felt they brought their spinners on too early. Moeen would have been a good match-up to Lyth/Malan.

Against teams with front-line off-spinners (like Yorkshire had on Friday, and Derbyshire had on Sunday) I’d also like to see Sam Hain bat at three to break up the potential left-left combo of Tom Latham and Dan Mousley. Otherwise, it’s just inviting opposition to match-up positively against the top order.

Their Midlands rivals Nottinghamshire have surprisingly not given Freddie McCann much game time - he was one player I was looking forward to see given a long run in their team (as well as Farhan Ahmed). Lyndon James opening ahead of him seems, on the surface, to be a strange decision. Again, they look like another team who would benefit from an overseas pacer - I know they have Daniel Sams, but I’m unconvinced he is getting as many overseas roles without his batting.

Young batters wanting for game-time is a recurring theme, and at bottom of the South Group Essex, it is evident as well. They’ve already lost young batting talent in recent years due to not giving them enough opportunity - for example, Rishi Patel and Feroze Khushi, who now seems out of the game, plus Ben Allison with the ball, and I wonder how much longer Robin Das might wait for his chances. He’s 23 years old now, strikes at 153 in 20 Blast games for Essex but is currently behind longer-format specialist Dean Elgar in the pecking order. If I was at one of the smaller counties, I’d be strongly considering trying to bring in Das.

Now, last year’s winners, Gloucestershire. I must admit I was extremely surprised to see them lift the trophy last year, as I felt they were tactically very weak in 2023, particularly with regard to their bowling plans and over distribution.

It looks like mean-reversion has kicked in this year, though, with a run of losses so far leaving them without a point at the time of writing. Overseas recruitment has been a little curious, and I’m not sure why they haven’t used D’Arcy Short’s bowling much. Any possible resurgence this season will likely be inspired by David Payne, who continues to be one of the best domestic pace bowlers in the country.

Finally, with 18 teams, there’s opportunity for a lot of players, but still some high potential, talented young players are lacking game time. Are counties being too short-term with their decision-making?

I want to finish with a team of young players who I think need to play regular first-team T20 now. Many of these players would be a marked upgrade on players picked by other teams, and a football-style transfer system might increase efficiency in this area, as I’ve discussed recently.

Let me know in the comments where you think this team would finish in the Blast - particularly if they had two overseas players to make it stronger

So many other options too - James Minto, Eddie Jack, Archie Lenham, Blake Cullen, Jack Morley and Hamza Shaikh could also be part of this squad.

Anyone interested in discussing how I can help their organisation with strategic management, data-driven analysis and long-term planning can get in touch at sportsanalyticsadvantage@gmail.com.