T20 Blast 2022 team guide: Lancashire Lightning

The Cricketer takes a look at the Lightning setup ahead of the new season, going in-depth on batting strength, bowling variation, key players, and problem areas

Coach: Glen Chapple

Former Lancashire allrounder Chapple made 66 T20 appearances for Lightning, scoring 301 runs and taking 68 wickets. He's been the head coach at Emirates Old Trafford since the start of the 2017 season, reaching Finals Day twice in five attempts and missing out on the knockout stages just once.

Captain: Dane Vilas

The veteran wicketkeeper-batter is heading into sixth T20 Blast campaign but is yet to get his hands on the trophy. He deputised as captain for the injured Liam Livingstone in 2018 and steered Lancashire Lightning to Finals Day, losing to Worcestershire Rapids in the semi-final. He replaced Livingstone as captain across all formats the following season and has since led Lancashire to two quarter-final appearances (2019, 2021) and Finals Day in 2020, again losing in the semi-finals.

^{Liam Livingstone will be crucial to Lancashire when available [Getty Images]}

Overseas stars

Tim David

One of Singapore's most famous sons, David is a regular on the franchise circuit and one of the most coveted players in T20 cricket thanks to his impressive finisher credentials – his strike rate is in excess of 160.

He fetched £890,000 at the 2022 IPL auction and in his final appearance for Mumbai Indians, he showcased why they paid 20 times over the base price to secure his services, blasting 34 runs from 11 balls.

Dane Vilas

The South African is Lancashire's second overseas player but as a former Kolpak signing and a squad member since 2017, there is relatively little fanfare surrounding his inclusion. He's by no means an electric batter, possessing a T20 strike rate around the 125-mark, but can usually be relied upon to score 200-300 runs per season.

English stars

Liam Livingstone

One of the men of the moment in T20 cricket. With the bat, Livingstone takes range-hitting to the extreme (remember his century at Trent Bridge last summer?), blasting big boundaries as a hard-hitting opener or a dynamic finisher, depending on which skillset his side requires; with the ball, he bowls both off and leg-spin. Last season, he scored 279 runs – the third-most in the team – and took three wickets in six appearances for Lancashire.

Jos Buttler

When available, Buttler is perhaps the only player who can out-hit Livingstone at the top of the order for Lancashire. England's star T20 opener and gloveman, he is an eye-catching, hard-hitting, 360-degree batter with a career strike rate in excess of 140.

Matt Parkinson

Lancashire's leading wicket-taker for the past four seasons, Parkinson is one of the premier spinners in the Blast, using his tricky turn to bamboozle batters. He's twice passed 20 wickets in a campaign and heads into the season with 88 wickets in just 57 appearances.

Wildcard

Josh Bohannon has been ripping it up in the County Championship for the past few seasons but only has 112 T20 Blast runs to his name ahead of the 2022 season.

This is because in the majority of the 22 matches he's played in, he's been largely surplus to requirements in the middle order. However, he made a surprise appearance at the top of the order in Lancashire's quarter-final against Somerset last season and scored 35 runs from 20 balls. Who knows if he'll get an opportunity in the XI this season, but he's possibly worth a punt.

Pace bowler Richard Gleeson, awarded a white-ball only contract after two injury-plagued years, is also something of a wildcard. The 34-year-old had taken 40 Blast wickets in 41 appearances prior to this season, including a best haul of 14 wickets in 2016, and earned himself a reputation as an aggressive pace bowler. But will he be able to replicate his previous form?

^{Luke Wood will lead the line in Saqib Mahmood's absence [Getty Images]}

BATTING

Power hitters

Lancashire are blessed in this department, with Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone and Phil Salt all in this category. Leave Buttler out of the equation given his scarce availability and Lancashire still have two top-order batter capable of giving most bowling attacks the jitters.

Livingstone is a huge hitter, with over 300 fours and 270-plus sixes to his name already. His 58-ball 94 at the top of the order against Derbyshire was one of the highlights of Lancashire's Blast campaign last year, while in The Hundred he hit 49 boundaries (22 fours, 27 sixes) on his way to a tournament-leading 348 runs.

Salt is also a fearless striker of the ball, dispatching 302 runs at a strike rate of 147.31 for Sussex Sharks in 2021. No one in the side hit more than his 12 sixes while only Luke Wright (46) struck more fours than Salt's 31.

Anchor

Keaton Jennings is not a typical T20 batter, with George Balderson telling The Cricketer: "He's made his name by yes, hitting boundaries, but also being clever and hitting the ball into pockets, running hard and knowing his game.”

He's scored 200-plus runs and averaged above 40 in three of his past four Blast campaigns and is comfortable accompanying a more aggressive player – at the top or slotting in around No.4 or No.5 to provide stability in times of crisis.

Vilas, with his steady strike rate and naturally offensive playing style, could also do an anchoring role in the middle order, if necessary, although his running between the wickets is perhaps a little too risky to be a true anchor.

Finisher

Tim David is one of the best finishers in the world at present, possessing a strike rate above 145 in every T20 league he's played in bar one. That one is the Blast, but he only played two matches for Surrey and still struck 45 runs at a rate of 136.36.

He bats anywhere in the order from No.3 down, can adapt his game to chase a score or finish an innings, and is powerful enough to clear the boundary with almost any ball. If you require further evidence, he faced 86 balls in the IPL and hit 12 of them for four and 16 for six.

Can be inconsistent, however.

Problem areas

With England white-ball series against Netherlands and India coinciding with the business end of the competition, Lancashire could lose as many as three big hitters – Livingstone, Buttler (admittedly, he has only played eight T20s for Lancashire since 2018) and Salt. In the event of their respective absences, Lancashire would need someone to step up but, David aside, no one stands out as a big-hitting white-ball batter.

How soon they have IPL trio Livingstone, David and Buttler available for selection could also hamper them at the start of the tournament, with a lot of pressure falling on Salt. Without any combination of these four players, Lancashire's line-up is unlikely to set the Blast alight.

^{Seamer Tom Bailey [Getty Images]}

BOWLING

Speed merchants

Luke Wood is probably the quickest of the bowlers and is frequently used in the shorter format to bowl a couple of hostile, powerplay overs. His left-arm swing is fairly potent – he picked up a team-leading 13 wickets last season – but control can sometimes be an issue.

Gleeson was also quick a few years ago but as mentioned, how much he will play and what his bowling is like now is something of a mystery. Jack Blatherwick, meanwhile, has been tipped by Vilas to hit 90mph and although he is yet to play a T20 match, he might be a risk worth taking.

Variation

Lancashire have two of the best in leg-spinner Parkinson and slow left-armer Tom Hartley. Parkinson's successes are well-documented, but Hartley established himself as both miserly and a dangerous wicket-taker in 2021, picking up 12 wickets and conceding just 6.62 runs per over. Although 10 of his wickets came on home soil, making him something of an Old Trafford specialist, his economy remains an asset wherever he goes. He’s also a handy powerplay option for Lancashire, picking up five wickets in the first six overs last season.

Livingstone offers an additional option here thanks to his off-spin/leg-spin trickery while young Jack Morley is also a contender, taking 10 T20 wickets for the second XI last season with his left-arm spin. Rob Jones and Steven Croft add further depth.

Line and length

When he's on the money, swing bowler Wood can be dangerous in this department, with his fuller deliveries capable of bamboozling batters. There's a video of him knocking over Ian Cockbain in The Hundred out there somewhere if proof is required.

Otherwise, infrequent T20 bowler Tom Bailey – who took a surprising 10 wickets with an economy of 6.93 in 2020 – is your best bets.

Problem areas

With Saqib Mahmood out for the season, there's a lot of pressure on Wood – a player who has only taken 10 wickets in a campaign twice – to be Lancashire's leading pacer. As with the batting line-up, things could also get interesting if Parkinson receives an England white-ball call-up, with Hartley left to hold the spin fort. Fortunately for Lancashire, they have a fair few allrounders to call upon but an additional specialist bowler, probably a seamer, wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Who takes the gloves?

Given he has custody of the gloves in the County Championship, Phil Salt is the frontrunner to stand behind the stumps in the Blast. The former Sussex man heads into the 2022 season with 63 catches and six stumpings in his T20 career. Vilas, Buttler and young duo George Lavelle and George Bell add depth.

Fixtures: May 27 – Yorkshire Vikings (h, 6:30pm), May 29 – Worcestershire Rapids (h, 2:30pm), May 31 – Notts Outlaws (a, 6:30pm), June 1 - Derbyshire Falcons (h, 3pm), June 3 – Northants Steelbacks (h, 6:30pm), June 7 – Leicestershire Foxes (a, 6:30pm), June 8 – Yorkshire Vikings (a, 6:30pm), June 10 – Durham (a, 6:30pm), June 17 – Northants Steelbacks (a, 6:30pm), June 19 – Notts Outlaws (h, 2:30pm), June 23 – Durham (h, 6:30pm), June 24 – Derbyshire Falcons (a, 7pm), July 1 – Worcestershire Rapids (a, 5:30pm), July 3 – Birmingham Bears (h, 2:30pm)

Squad: Dane Vilas (c), Tom Bailey, George Balderson, George Bell, Jack Blatherwick, Josh Bohannon Jos Buttler, Steven Croft, Tim David, Richard Gleeson, Tom Hartley, Liam Hurt, Keaton Jennings, Rob Jones, Danny Lamb, George Lavelle, Liam Livingstone, Jack Morley, Matt Parkinson, Phil Salt, Luke Wells, Luke Wood

Possible XI: Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Keaton Jennings, Dane Vilas, Steven Croft, Tim David, Danny Lamb, Luke Wood, Matt Parkinson, Tom Hartley, Tom Bailey