Quick Single: Open with Faf
Faf is an incredible number three batter, but I would still open with him at the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Faf du Plessis' batting has come full circle.
Not many people might remember this, but Faf began his T20 career as an opener. That was during the 2006/07 season. Many people will have blotted this bit from their memories because in the three games that he opened, Faf only managed 55 runs at a strike rate of 127.91. His high score was 33.
Everything about those numbers is bad. So bad that I was shocked that the Proteas did try him out as an opener 6 years later in a match against New Zealand. He managed only one run from nine balls.
15 years after his first attempt at opening in T20 cricket, after years of operating as a reliable and consistent number 3 batter, he is back opening. And this time, not many people will be quick to forget his exploits for CSK as an opening batter.
Four 50s from seven games. That is not a statistic to be sneezed at.
And it is because of this statistic that I would definitely want to see the Proteas open with Faf. It's not just because of his 50s for CSK, but how he gotten those 50s. This matters to me, especially, if the world cup is to be held in India or the UAE (I have seen suggestions that the UAE might be an option.)
The way he has gone about getting those 50s show that he is now more suited for the position. In fact, we could be witnessing an evolution that will see him bat into his 40s. We see this often, athletes repositioning themselves to add years to their careers. At 37, he no longer plays with the exuberance of youth. No. His years of experience would have done a lot to tone that down. He is now more self-aware. He knows his limitations and can use them as an advantage.
And despite his successful stint as a middle-order batter for most of his career, having Faf open the batting is a way to turn his limitation into an advantage.
Statistics people talk of small samples, with good reason, but T20 cricket, the way things are, it would take years before there was a reasonable sample to judge from. These guys just don’t play often enough.
Anyway, it's been only seven innings, but what those seven innings have showed is that for a slow starter... Faf is a slow starter, let's get that out of the way first.
Look, I don't think there are many batters out there that go at 150% strike rate from ball one, not even AB DeVilliers is that prolific. DeVilliers takes about 8 to 10 balls to get into gear. And once he gets going he doesn't stop. I don't think he knows how to stop, frankly.
So, the longer DeVilliers is batting, the worse things look for opposition bowlers.
But, unlike DeVilliers, Faf doesn't have an always rising strike rate. He reaches a period where he just levels off and starts cruising at a constant rate. It sounds bad when I put it this way or put his numbers beside AB's numbers, but his numbers are really not bad. They are actually good. And they get better when he is opening, and that is because he has found a way to cause damage quickly.
When he comes in at number three he is just another elite batter who scores with a strike rate that is in the mid-130s. That is not bad, it's good (very good, actually), but it is not exceptional. It is enough to help a team win matches, but it is not enough to give a team a considerable competitive advantage. Almost every team out there has batters with a mid-130 strike rate.
Teams that can do real damage have more batters scoring at a higher strike rate.
What he has shown this year with CSK is that he can take advantage of the Powerplay and increase his strike rate, by a lot. By his standards, his strike rate has risen to astronomical levels by batting in the Powerplay.
How has he done that? By hitting more boundaries. About 61% of his runs have come off boundaries. Compare that to his T20I career where 57% of his runs came off boundaries. Reminder, he came in at 3. That 4% jump in runs coming from boundaries matters a lot. It is critical in the difference between a mid-130 strike rate and a mid-140 strike rate.
Mind you, Faf is not in the mid-140s with mid-30s scores, he is there with (mostly) scores of 50 and above. Most top batters can strike in the mid-140s and score 20s and 30s against quality opposition, there is nothing special about that. What Faf has done with CSK is special.
(Faced 220 balls for his 320 runs at a strike rate of 145.45. 145.45 is his highest strike rate ever in T20s, whether in the IPL, GT20, T20Is...)
But Temba...
If I was playing head coach, I would play Temba at 3. Temba can open, that is a given, but he can also bat 3.
Temba has a better middle overs strike rate than Faf (since 2019) and that would make him a good fit for batting at three. Since 2019, Temba has scored 123 runs in the middle overs at 148.19 (with a boundary percentage of 18.07). In the same period, Faf scored 149 at a rate of 128.45 (boundary percentage of 15.09).
I mean, it really wouldn’t be a bad idea to capitalize on this, would it?
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