T20 World Cup 2022: "We couldn't even send Pant despite saying he is an X-factor" - Aakash Chopra lauds England's role clarity
Aakash Chopra has picked role clarity as a reason for England's success in the T20 World Cup 2022. He cited India's inability to use Rishabh Pant in his defined role with the bat in the semi-finals to substantiate his point.
England beat Pakistan by five wickets in Melbourne on Sunday, November 13, to win their second global title in the game's shortest format. They restricted Babar Azam and Co. to 137/8 and chased down the slightly below-par target with an over to spare.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra chose England players having well-defined roles as a reason for their title-winning run. He explained:
"There was role clarity. Dawid Malan was the No. 1 T20I batter in the ICC rankings sometime back. They said it's fine if he doesn't get to bat. Will we (India) do that with anyone? We couldn't even send Pant despite saying he is an X-factor."
The former Indian cricketer highlighted that all other England batters knew beforehand that they might be outscored by Jos Buttler and Alex Hales. He observed:
"Everyone from No. 1 to No. 7 knows that whoever plays in the powerplay will have chances to score more runs and that they might become the glory boys - Buttler and Hales will score more than 200 runs if you talk about the World Cup."
Chopra added that the other players didn't mind being listed way down the run-scoring charts. He stated:
"The others are not scoring 125 also, but they are saying it's okay because your role is not towards that 200. It does not matter if you want to be the highest run-scorer, because there is no value in that. That clarity of thought is incredible."
Buttler (225) and Hales (212) were England's top run-getters in the tournament. While Ben Stokes aggregated 110 runs, none of the other English players reached the 60-run mark.
"Role clarity is absolutely imperative in T20 cricket" - Aakash Chopra
Chopra pointed out that role clarity helped England gain an edge over the other sides. He reasoned:
"In my opinion, role clarity is absolutely imperative in T20 cricket. The other teams react to a situation, but they say that they will send you in that situation only for a particular role. Your job becomes easier if you know where and how you need to go because you don't have time to think in T20."
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Some cricketer, @CurranSM 👏 https://t.co/9ABklZ7Gwn
The renowned commentator also gave Sam Curran's example to further substantiate his point. He highlighted that the seam bowler, who might not have succeeded on small grounds like the Wankhede Stadium, was immensely successful as a death bowler on huge Australian grounds with his short deliveries and wide yorkers.