zimcricketforums.com

In which position should Taylor be batting? (ODIs)

3.

Want a scary thought?

Imagine if he left the breadbasket to go play county or somewhere. that's my nightmare.

*shudders*

ZIMDOGGY wrote:3.

Want a scary thought?

Imagine if he left the breadbasket to go play county or somewhere. that's my nightmare.

*shudders*

Don't even say stuff like that out loud. If he goes we wont have nobody scoring 100s.

said it for ages he has to open hes our best bat by a long shot , chibabaha is rubbish and always has been he is at best a decent t20 player. he is to inconsistent to open and scores to slowly.if taylor is opening he has more time to score more runs look how well he did today ! drop chibabha bring back ervine and im confident taibu , ervine , hammy and mutizwa can stear the ship.we seriosuly needd someone like williams back just someone classy who we know can do the job atm we just hope chibabha and chigz these sort of guys can do there roll. more times they dont then they do ! its international cricket for godsakes , meth should easily be in our starting team by now and make chigz earn his spot back ! but yes taylor for opening

Meth needs to be in next match. He's in the form of his life....having said that he has been for the past two years.
There's just a big gap isn't there, in the batting dep. Like AndyBligz rightfully said, Williams would fill the whole nicely, not just because he;s a class act, but because he's another left hander. I'd even go as far as picking Coventry in the ODI squad, because Chigumbura still isn't firing

sloandog wrote:Meth needs to be in next match. He's in the form of his life....having said that he has been for the past two years.
There's just a big gap isn't there, in the batting dep. Like AndyBligz rightfully said, Williams would fill the whole nicely, not just because he;s a class act, but because he's another left hander. I'd even go as far as picking Coventry in the ODI squad, because Chigumbura still isn't firing

thanks sloan ! even someone like ewing and matsi could be given a crack because the team on the park atm would not harm anyone at the next world cup. zim seriosuly need to try and get williams , ballance and sean ervine off there back side and get them in the red ! i know everyones going to have a go at me for bringing ervine and ballance up but its so true. if we want to challenge teams not just someone make a 100 then the opposition chases it down with one wicket with plenty of overs left , we need depth and class. imagine this 1.Ballance 2.sibanda 3.Taylor 4.hammy 5.Taibu 6.williams 7 s.ervine 8.Meth 9.utseya 10.price 11.jarvis/mpofu . it makes me so frustrated knowing we could have this lineup and the damage it could do

I SO agree!
I'd throw Craig Ervine in there aswell you know.
But having Ballance and Ervine in would be amazing. It' not going to happen, but it would be a dream come true.


And just a side note, watch out for Glen Querl, apparently he's similar to Meth but a bit quicker.

I agree too andybligz93. Definitely on Ballance. He is performing in every match... and in a big way. I think he got another century today. He would be a wonderful addition to the Zimbabwe side. He's averaging around 50 in First Class cricket, he has county experience... I think he has the potential to average well over 40 in Test cricket.

I don't know how he can be convinced to represent Zimbabwe as I know he's got his sights set on England. But they have to try.

As for this particular topic; even though I started the discussion I don't know myself where I think he is best suited. I think probably as an opener simply because he has the ability to make very big scores and the further down the order he plays the less time he has to build aforementioned big score. He's had success in the position and I didn't understand the logic of removing him from the position after that Bangladesh series on the back of a hundred.

Having said that, the move hasn't done his personal stats any harm. At four he's had a couple of half centuries against Pakistan and a big hundred today against New Zealand.

Furthermore, I come from the school of thought that you have your best batsman at number three. And that logic dictates that Taylor should bat at three. If I recall he's done pretty well in that position too, I think he got his maiden century against Bangladesh batting there.

After all that, it's still not clear in my mind where he should bat. I'm still leaning towards as an opener, but there are some mighty compelling reasons to keep him at 4 or promote him to 3.

There is no doubt Taylor is our best bat and having him in the right position is key to having a balanced batting line up. I would personally like to see him at three in ODIs and 4 in Tests. He's our best batter and if you look at other sides in the world, they have their best batters at 3 eg. Trott for Eng, Punter for Aus, Kallis for SA even Kenya play Collins Obuya at 3.
BT is pretty vulnerable early in his innings thanks to his poor footwork so you don't want to expose him to the brand new swinging ball early on, at the same time he doesn't have to come in too low down the order since he's the only player who has what it takes to score centuries. Three neither too high or too low and is probably the right position for him.
But it's obvious though, that whether Taylor opens or comes in at 4, for us to succeed everyone has to perform because Taylor can't win games on his own.

I have always favoured Taylor as an opener. I think the only reason he looks attractive in the middle order is due to the ineptitude of our middle order batsmen. Can we get some dispensation from the ICC so that Taylor can bat twice in the innings? He could open and then come in again at 4. Taylor is the one player who the opposition fear and when he is on form he can punish any bowling attack. We have no other player like that at the moment. Masakadza is a flat track minnow bully and Sibanda is rather too sedate and Craig Ervine isn't in the team.