England opener Tammy Beaumont could be used as a finisher in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup, captain Heather Knight has shared recently. England convincingly won a warmup game against an ACT Women’s XI prior to the tri-series including Australia and India and captain’s comment came after the match. However, this series will play a key role in their run-up to the mega event.
Beaumont has spent most of her time in England colours while batting at the top of the order in the shorter format of the game; she has batted there on 29 times and at the fall of the first wicket a further 13 times as well. However, with Amy Jones now a regular face in the team following the after the retirement of Sarah Taylor and Danni Wyatt, the first-choice in the other opening slot, Beaumont’s role has come into question as well.
Natalie Sciver, who has earlier worked with new head coach Lisa Keightley at Perth Scorchers in the Women’s Big Bash, batted at No. 3 in this latest warmup match and made 49 from just 34 deliveries. Beaumont has batted below the No. 5 spot in T20Is in only 13 games. However, the seeds were sewn when they faced Pakistan in December in Malaysia.
She batted at No. 3, No. 5 and No. 7 in the three matches and also highlighted England’s desire to make the most of her talents towards the end of the innings. This also allowed Sciver, Knight and Fran Wilson to occupy the middle order positions ahead of her.
“Tammy moving to No.6 was something we looked at in Malaysia,” Heather Knight explained after the 47-run win in Canberra. “We think she can be really good for us there – she can finish games and she can win games of cricket for us. It means she’ll have to adapt and we think she can do that, and we wanted Nat in a slightly different role at No.3.
“We’ll look to be flexible in our batting line-up but that’s the approach we’ve gone with to try and win a World Cup,” she concluded.
