Surely Mousley would come in as an opener? He's played at 3 most of the season, which requires a very similar skill set anyway.

Kai Smith could be moved up to 6.

If he was available I'd have Mousley and Bethell opening the innings.

if it was that 'surely' I'd have expected Mousley to have opened before at some point in his now 5-year career in the first team, during which time we have gone through about 9 opening partnerships none of which included him. last year when a spot opened up they used Barnard as an opener ahead of/instead of Mousley so i don't think its that cut & dried in their minds

Not sure Yates is in drop territory at the moment despite his duck yesterday?

The ideal is to play the strongest available team. If Bethell is available he has to play, likewise Mousley.

Yeah I agree, they should both definitely play if/when available. Can't recall either ever having opened at 1st team level though so that might not be the spot.

Both have batted at 3 a lot of the time, and Jacob played a lot of International cricket, at U19, as an opener.

Reading on the varied comments regarding the batting order how about - Hain opening with Yates followed by Mousley then Webster. As a top 4 they could provide an excellent start to the innings. My earlier comment concerning Kai is the position he was in there seemed to be a waste. Going in above Thompson and Woakes is simply because at least they will, or should be, contributing with the ball. Also Woakes has done very little with the bat anyway.

Yeah agree ive wanted Hain opening in this format for years, gotta get yer best bat in early.

Highveld wrote:

Both have batted at 3 a lot of the time, and Jacob played a lot of International cricket, at U19, as an opener.

Yeah fair, Theo Wylie opened with Ben McKinney in the u19 World Cup, get him in...

Andy wrote:

Yeah agree ive wanted Hain opening in this format for years, gotta get yer best bat in early.

as many years as he's played and not been opener (albeit as I recall, his first year in the T20 lineup he opened for at least half the season and maybe more) you have to assume either he or the management or both are simply averse to the idea.

I've banged on about it at length on here before and won't bore everyone again but i think it suits his skillset more than coming in at 4 does, but that ship sailed a long time ago, it seems.

Andy wrote:

Yeah I agree, they should both definitely play if/when available. Can't recall either ever having opened at 1st team level though so that might not be the spot.

Bethell had that brief period opening for us in his first season in the T20 when he was like 18/19, an experiment that lasted maybe 1/3 that season and never really came off

ITE7376 wrote:

Andy wrote:

Yeah I agree, they should both definitely play if/when available. Can't recall either ever having opened at 1st team level though so that might not be the spot.

---

Bethell had that brief period opening for us in his first season in the T20 when he was like 18/19, an experiment that lasted maybe 1/3 that season and never really came off

Yep, I was going to mention that. Whilst it didn't come off those were his first, first XI games and he's clearly developed a lot since then. I think it's worth giving him another go there if/when he's available.

Just looked back, indeed he opened for 8 games in 2022 scoring 81 runs with a S/R of 106.

Other things I noticed:

Adam Hose was our highest runscorer that year, by a distance.

Paul Stirling played for us, so did Carlos Brathwaite.

Alex Davies sometimes opened, other times batted 5.

We used just 14 different players across 15 games that year.

Mikkyk wrote:

ITE7376 wrote:

Andy wrote:

Yeah I agree, they should both definitely play if/when available. Can't recall either ever having opened at 1st team level though so that might not be the spot.

---

Bethell had that brief period opening for us in his first season in the T20 when he was like 18/19, an experiment that lasted maybe 1/3 that season and never really came off

Yep, I was going to mention that. Whilst it didn't come off those were his first, first XI games and he's clearly developed a lot since then. I think it's worth giving him another go there if/when he's available.

oh, definitely worth a thought

my one caveat there though is he is by far our most destructive player of spin and if available the only player we have who can totally smash the spinners around and just bully them over the leg side boundary. As such, myself, I'd save him to come in when we know spin is being bowled as his is so much better than anyone else we have at really taking the spinners down for 20+ an over

Andy wrote:

Just looked back, indeed he opened for 8 games in 2022 scoring 81 runs with a S/R of 106.

Other things I noticed:

Adam Hose was our highest runscorer that year, by a distance.

Paul Stirling played for us, so did Carlos Brathwaite.

Alex Davies sometimes opened, other times batted 5.

We used just 14 different players across 15 games that year.

> Adam Hose was our highest runscorer that year, by a distance.
as i recall that was Hains worst year for us both in aggregate runs and strike

> Alex Davies sometimes opened, other times batted 5.

he hit an excellent 40 off 19 odd when we chased well over 200 at Northants, may have been our highest successful chase at the time, certainly away from home. again i've banged this drum already but i think he'd be better playing spin in the middle overs than Hain is /Webster seems to be (although IIRC Webster scored at an ok rate yesterday against the spin, we scored at 8 an over which isn't that bad for us vs spin, we did let Harrison bowl 9 dot balls out of his 24 though which underlines that we can get clogged at the crease against spin)

Highveld wrote:

Surely Mousley would come in as an opener? He's played at 3 most of the season, which requires a very similar skill set anyway.

Kai Smith could be moved up to 6.

If he was available I'd have Mousley and Bethell opening the innings.

Mousley will be unavailable for all Bears matches until 12 June (ie the next two T20 games), he is still in the England Lions squad for the 3 ODI games against South Africa A. 12 June is the restart of the County Championship.