The T20 batting order explained: who bats where and why

A T20 innings is 120 balls. In a good one, the top three face most of them, the middle order faces the spinners, and the finisher faces the death bowlers with a licence to swing. In a bad one, the wrong batters face the wrong bowlers and a side with seven good players scores 140. The batting order is how you decide who faces what. Here is the logic, position by position.

Openers: the powerplay is the point

The first six overs are the powerplay, the only phase in which the field is up and a well-hit ball along the ground goes for four. The openers exist to use it. A side that scores 55 for none in the powerplay has an easy middle period ahead; one that scores 35 for two has to rebuild against spinners with the field back.

Most sides pair two types. An aggressor goes from the first ball and accepts that he will be out cheaply once in three; his job is 30 off 15, not 60 off 50. An anchor bats through, keeps the strike rotating and is still there at the tenth over. The two need not be equally good; they need to be different. A left-hander and a right-hander together also help, because bowlers must change their line every time the strike rotates.

The most common mistake is opening with two players who both need ten balls to get in. The powerplay is over before either of them has started.

Number three: the swing position

Three is the hardest slot to fill because the job depends on when the wicket falls. Out in the second over, the number three is an opener and needs to attack the powerplay. Out in the ninth, he is a middle-order batter who must rebuild against spin. The ideal number three is the best all-round batter in the side, comfortable against pace and spin, capable of 80 off 50 and of 25 off 12.

Sides without such a player sometimes use the slot tactically: a hitter promoted if the openers have gone early, or a spin specialist held back if the spinners are due. The impact player rule has made this flexibility easier, because a side can bring on a specialist for the situation it actually faces.

Four and five: the spin overs

Overs seven to fifteen, the middle overs, belong to the spinners and to five fielders on the boundary. The batters here need two skills. One is hitting spin, ideally over the top and against the turn, so a bowler cannot settle. The other is rotating strike, because a phase with lots of dot balls is what produces the collapse at the death when the required run rate has climbed to 14. A left-right combination matters more here than anywhere, because it forces the spinner to bowl to two different sides.

Six and seven: the finishers

The death overs are where the finisher earns his money. He must hit from the first ball, because there is no time to get in; he must be able to hit yorkers, which usually means getting low and hitting straight or scooping; and he must read the equation, knowing which bowler has an over left and which is the one to go after. Seven is often the batting all-rounder, and a bowler who can bat gives the side the depth to attack from five onwards without fear.

The tail: shorten it

Batters eight to eleven should be bowlers who can hit a boundary or two, not batters who can bowl a bit. In T20 the tail rarely bats, and when it does the match is usually lost. What matters is that the top seven are all real batters, which is why the wicketkeeper's batting and the all-rounder's batting decide how deep the order goes.

The order should move

The team sheet is a starting point. Chasing a small total, promote the anchor and let the hitters wait. Chasing a big one, promote the hitter and let the anchor watch. If a spinner is due to bowl overs ten to fourteen, hold back the batter who cannot hit spin until he is done. If a wicket falls with two balls left in an over, send in the player who is best at the single so the set batter keeps the strike. None of this is exotic; it is just refusing to let the printed order face the wrong bowler.

Match-ups

The last layer is the individual contest. Most batters have a bowler type they struggle against: the left-arm seamer angling across, the leg-spinner's googly, the slower ball into the pitch. Most bowlers have batters they cannot bowl to. A batting order built with match-ups in mind sends the right batter to the crease when the difficult bowler is on and keeps him away from it otherwise.

In Masterstroke the tactics sheet gives each batter a call, defend, build, attack or swing, on top of his place in the order. A gun striker told to slog will get away with it; a number eleven making the same decision will not, and the commentary will say why.