The apple Lyth and Rossington ate from the T20 Tree of Knowledge
The story of how Lyth and Rossington are two of the best T20 powerplay maximizers currently
One of the most common things associated with Christianity is the story of Adam and Eve and the consequences they faced for eating an apple from the Tree of Knowledge.
But in the cases of two Adams born on opposite sides of England about half a decade apart who both happened to grow up to become professional cricketers and that too open in T20 cricket, a big reason for the vast success they have relished post-pandemic in the format is because they ate an apple from the T20 Tree of Knowledge.
Those two Adams were named Adam Lyth, age 35, and Adam Rossington, age 30.
But what is the T20 Tree of Knowledge for if thou shalt eat from it then thou shalt not face the consequences like Adam and Eve, you ask?
The apples in the T20 Tree of Knowledge grow in great abundance in various flavors, symbolizing the evergrowing trend of role-defined players in the format, tailored to meet their specific needs.
And the apples Lyth and Rossington ate from the tree were infused with ghost peppers, one of the hottest peppers known to man, for if you were to describe what makes a good T20 opener using culinary terminology, odds are you’d use spicy to pair with aggressive.
”To be a good T20 opener, ONE must spice their batting with the spiciest of spices consistently,” says a fictitious food critic who happens to be a cricket fan but uses the word umami a bit too much in a bid to sound sophisticated.
And the batting of Lyth and Rossington certainly is spicy. In fact, it may even be argued that their batting is one of the spiciest in the powerplay.
In T20s since 2022 before the beginning of this year’s T20 Blast, Lyth had the highest strike rate of openers who faced a minimum of 300 balls in the powerplay: 170.
No other opener struck in excess of 170, and Rossington was one of 3 openers who struck in excess of 160+ at 162.74 and overall had the third-highest strike rate.
To make things even spicier, Lyth complemented this strike rate with an elite average of 39 odd. But as for Rossington, it was more on the end of “there’s more room for improvement”, with an average of 27.60.
But the “it may even be argued” stems from the fact that both have primarily only played in the Blast and the Hundred and though the latter is a good quality tournament, it’s definitely not as high quality as the likes of the IPL, PSL, and SA20.
Regardless though, the biggest takeaway from this is both Adams are one of the best T20 powerplay maximizers in the T20 league market, a batting role that continues to go under the radar in spite of the success such batters have seen.
Such batters are able to consistently build a great foundation for the rest of the batting lineup to capitalize on and potentially set a well above-par target, as well as have the ability to break the backbone of the chase within the first 6 overs alone.
A prime example of the latter is when Islamabad United chased down a target of 134 against the Quetta Gladiators in PSL6 with 10 overs to spare and didn’t lose any wickets.
By the end of the powerplay, United had scored 97 runs, which was 72.38% of the target already attained.
One of the founding principles of United has always been to have aggressive openers, which meant that throughout PSL history, they’ve imported their openers, a big reason why they won the maiden PSL season as well as their second and last title to date 2 years later. Just ask Luke Ronchi.
A more recent instance in this year’s IPL is the Yashasvi Jaiswal carnage against the Kolkata Knight Riders chasing a target of 150, beginning by smashing Nitish Rana for 26 runs in the opening over, reaching his 50 in 13 deliveries about two overs later, and eventually chased it down with 41 balls remaining.
In the case of Lyth, this capability was well apparent when cricket had just begun to resume post-pandemic.
The PSL5 playoffs leg was played 8 months later after the COVID-19 pandemic initially brought the season to a halt.
One of the teams which qualified was the Multan Sultans, who along with all other qualifying teams had to sign replacement players, and one of the players the Sultans signed was Lyth.
In the Qualifier 2 encounter against the Lahore Qalandars, the Sultans had to chase down a target of 183 to play in the final against the Peshawar Zalmi, and Lyth smashed a 23-ball 46 striking at 200 to keep Sultans well on track of the target, scoring 60-1 at the end of the powerplay.
But unfortunately for chef Lyth, his dish could’ve used more spices, as they were bowled out for 157 and lost by 25 runs.
That would also be his second and last PSL match to date, but in the T20 Blast and particularly the Hundred post-pandemic, his batting has continued to be spicier than ever.
For the Northern Superchargers in the Men’s Hundred last year, had it been a combination of better player recruitment and player availability, Lyth wouldn’t have had to deal with the qualms of not having enough spices yet again.
Though the Superchargers finished 6th, he was comfortably the team’s highest run scorer and was overall the third-highest run scorer, scoring 299 runs across 8 matches averaging 37.37 striking at 175.88, the highest strike rate of those in the top 10.
And as you must’ve guessed, he was an elite powerplay maximizer that season, with a mammoth average of 120 odd striking at 195.12, the second-highest strike rate for openers who faced a minimum of 30 balls in the phase.
As for chef Rossington, he first caught my eye when he was cooking Lyth’s team, more specifically Roelof van der Merwe’s full darts with machine-like precision to smash the fastest fifty in tournament history off 15 deliveries and scored 54 off 16 balls in the powerplay.
It was largely made possible by some very horrific bowling that day, making me align with the opinion that he’s a one-dish wonder, for the season numbers of an 18.22 average with a 178.26 strike rate along with that innings being his only fifty that season across 9 matches strongly suggested that.
But fast forward 4 months later to the SA20, and it was clear that this chef from Middlesex knew how to handle more spices than the average Englishmen.
Playing for the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Rossington was the team’s second-highest run scorer and overall the 8th-highest, scoring 246 runs across 10 matches averaging 27.33 and striking at 166.21.
In the powerplay, he had the second-highest strike rate of 171.31 for openers who faced at least 30 balls in the first 6 overs, complemented by a stellar average of 34.83.
The highlight of his powerplay maximizing was in the final against the Pretoria Capitals, breaking the backbone of a paltry chase of 136 by blazing to 52 off 20 deliveries striking at 260 facing the likes of Wayne Parnell and the promising Eathan Bosch with the new ball, playing a vital role in their eventual triumph.
“But what traits does the ghost pepper apple from the T20 Tree of Knowledge gift openers who eat it?
If you think about it, it’s really not that hard to answer what constitutes a good enough T20 opener (moreso a powerplay maximizer).
If we use the list from earlier that used a sample size of at least 300 balls faced to sort the top 10 batters in descending strike rate order, we get this:
Adam Lyth (LHB-Pace Hitter)
Will Jacks (RHB-Pace Hitter)
Adam Rossington (RHB-Pace Hitter)
Alex Hales (RHB-Pace Hitter)
Yashasvi Jaiswal (LHB-Spin Hitter)
Phil Salt (RHB-Pace Hitter)
Paul Stirling (RHB-Spin Hitter)
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (RHB-Pace Hitter)
Jason Roy (RHB-Pace Hitter)
Kyle Mayers (LHB-Pace Hitter)
Notice how barring Jaiswal and Stirling, every other opener’s batting role is that of a pace hitter.
There’s certainly an element of subjectivity in using granular metrics in this manner to some extent, but it can definitely serve as an indicator with decent predictive power for our purposes, clearly indicating that one of the biggest keys to success as a T20 opener is to have the ability to attack pace.
Along with being above average against pace, more specifics include:
The ability to attack hard lengths
The ability to clear the circle (essentially have strong enough muscles to satisfy this requirement)
The ability to attack express pace
The ability to attack new ball movement (ie swing and seam)
The ability to attack powerplay spin (spinners who bowl wicket to wicket and skid the ball)
While chef Lyth is able to tick all boxes, chef Rossington can tick all but one: powerplay spin.
In fact, chef Rossington has quite the way to go against spin in general but given powerplay overs are bowled by pacers majority of the time, in the powerplay at least, as long as he’s not facing a team who strongly believe in matchups, Anton Ego will be left stunned most of the time.
So what about England? Has the ghost pepper apple made them good enough to be a part of their very deep white ball talent pool?
Given Lyth is nearly 36 and hasn’t played for England since their search for Alastair Cook’s successor in the whites back in 2015, it’s very unlikely for him unless something bizarre like what happened in the Pakistan-England 2021 ODI series happens once again, but that incident was a once in a blue moon occurrence.
As for Rossington, there are the chances of him being a late bloomer like we’ve seen with Rassie van der Dussen back in 2018, though with the emergence of Will Jacks, Phil Salt and Hales returning to the English setup, it’s quite the road up ahead.
He’d essentially have to take a leaf out of Hales’ book and constantly wow with dishes across the T20 globe to the point the food critics can’t pull a minuscule flaw for the sake of it, the food critics being none other than the English selectors of course
With how I’ve portrayed Lyth and Rossington in this article, you might be thinking that they’re some Gordon Ramsay whose services the PSL and IPL are missing out on big time.
But if you’ve been following the Blast, you’d know that going into the upcoming Hundred season, their recent form is akin to that of a newbie cook struggling to learn how to crack an egg.
Lyth finished as the 67th highest run scorer, scoring 237 runs across 13 matches averaging 19.75 striking at 122.79, with just one fifty which was his top score of 90*, while Rossington scored 132 runs averaging 13.20 striking at 155.29 with a sour top score of 35.
However, the vast majority of their post-pandemic form suggests that just like Ramsay, they clearly are well adept at handling the spices of being deemed a good modern-day T20 opener.
And in spite of their form, the duo will have to shoulder a big burden of their respective teams’ responsibilities.
While Lyth will have to go an extra mile beyond last season to help the Superchargers stand a good chance of making the Top 3 cutoff for the first time in their history, Rossington will have a big role in ensuring the London Spirit’s renaissance continues and can go one step forward in making the finals and lift the trophy this time around.
Three seasons in, the Hundred is yet to see its first 200+ score. But in the event the milestone is achieved this season, don’t be surprised if at least one of Adam Lyth or Adam Rossington is at the forefront of it, for players who eat an apple from the T20 Tree of Knowledge, the possibilities are endless.