England to use Tammy Beaumont as finisher at T20 World Cup

Beaumont has spent the vast majority of her time in England colours batting in the top three in T20I cricket

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Tammy Beaumont could be used by England as an innings finisher at the T20 World Cup, Heather Knight has revealed.

The England captain was speaking after her side comfortably won a warmup match against an ACT Women’s XI ahead of a tri-series against Australia and India, which precedes the main tournament.

Beaumont has spent the vast majority of her time in England colours batting at the top of the order in T20I cricket; she has batted there on 29 occasions and at the fall of the first wicket a further 13 times.

However, with Amy Jones now a regular fixture in the side following the international retirement of Sarah Taylor and Danni Wyatt a shoo-in in the other opening slot, Beaumont’s role has come into question.

Nat Sciver, who has previously worked with new head coach Lisa Keightley at Perth Scorchers in the Women’s Big Bash, batted at No.3 in this latest warmup match; she made 49 from just 34 deliveries.

Beaumont has batted below the No.5 spot in T20Is in just 13 games. However, the seeds were sewn during England’s tour of Malaysia where they faced Pakistan in December.

She batted at No.3, No.5 and No.7 in the three matches, highlighting England’s desire to make the most of her talents at the back-end of the innings, while also allowing Sciver, Knight and Fran Wilson to occupy the middle order positions ahead of her.

“Tammy moving to No.6 was something we looked at in Malaysia,” Knight explained after the 47-run win in Canberra.

“We think she can be really good for us there – she can finish games and she can win games of cricket for us. It means she’ll have to adapt and we think she can do that, and we wanted Nat in a slightly different role at No.3.

“We’ll look to be flexible in our batting line-up but that’s the approach we’ve gone with to try and win a World Cup.”