Cricket is a wierd sport that is hard to balance.
Currently you have that chance that a gun batsman may carry his bat and win a game, surely hat should be championed as a great innings?
As to do that he’ll have to survive a few wonder balls, dig a few out that the pitch helped the bowler with, and survive those lbw shouts the umpire wants to give as his bus is due soon.
He could easily get a first baller or earl duck a few weeks in a row, and there’s no second chance on that.
Where as a bowler who can bowl 12 overs, well he’s got 72 legal balls to make soemthing happen.
Ball at rank long hop that’s hit into next county? Turn round and run back it.
Massive leg side wide that goes for four? Turn round and run back in.
He doesn’t need his chance upping to 148 balls at one end, his mate same at the other.
He’s got a decent chance already to impact the game and can easily get his five for every week. Mistakes and all.
I’d rather beat a team with a gun bat who we’ve got out, than one we’ve just settled on him retiring.
(Different ish story, I once played against a very good lms side. We’d never beaten them, but if got a few 80 not ours in previous games.
This game they had a plan and bullishly talked about to, they bowled (No Swearing Please) at me so I could retire at 50, they than bowled well to lint our other batsman, made no attempt to run out when it was available and even “Avoided” two catching chances so I couldn’t come back in.
Yet they still won by around 105 runs.
That to me is when retirement cricket doesn’t work)