Former England batsman Marcus Trescothick doesn’t believe in specialists at a specific position. As far as he is concerned, the best batsmen available should make up the side, and they can bat at different positions, not necessarily at positions where they have batted all their lives. Ever since England said goodbye to Zak Crawley after the 4-1 Ashes humiliation earlier this year, they have been looking for an opening partner for Ben Duckett, who has not had a great summer either against New Zealand and Pakistan, although he is the only centurion for England in the six games that they played.
Emilio Gay kept Duckett company at the opening spot and scored three fifties in all. In 11 innings, he scored 271 runs at an average of 24.63. There is talk that the generational talent Jacob Bethell could also be tried as an opener. Bethell, who has batted at No.3 in the past, didn’t play against Pakistan after he picked up injury during the New Zealand series, and his replacement at that number, Jordan Cox has impressed with an average of 50.50 across five innings against the team from the sub-continent.
So, when England next line up to play a Test series — in December in South Africa — Bethell could be asked to open the batting with Duckett. Bethell has opened for IPL side Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and of late has started opening in the one-day internationals too.
He may have a point!
Trescothick, who was the interim Test coach against Pakistan after new appointee Stephen Fleming opted out of the assignment, appears to be challenging the traditional thinking. He thinks if you are a specialist opener who is doing very well, that’s good, but if you are not doing great, a top-notch player like Bethell from another position should be considered. He added that the players nowadays are quite quick at adapting.
“You generally want your best top seven, however that looks,” said Trescothick. “Who that’s going to be, I don’t know. That’s for someone else to work out. I reckon times have changed a little bit. I think you look at your best batting line-up, however that fits up.
“If that’s with a specialist opener, great. If not, I think you can plan around it in this day and age. Players adapt pretty quickly because they’re chopping and changing formats,” he added.
