Three players to challenge Wright to be England’s top runscorer

Luke Wright heads the betting to be England’s top runscorer when their involvement in the World t20 comes to an end, but there are a few players at far longer odds who could hinder his chances of achieving this accolade.

Wright’s merciless 99* against Afghanistan has left him the 2/7 favourite to finish the tournament as his country’s top scorer, sitting 80 runs clear of his nearest challenger.

Six runs separate the three players in Wright’s wake and they’re all 8/1 shots to top the Three Lions’ run standings.

Of those three, Alex Hales is the best bet to run Wright closest, based on his record in games against England’s Super Eight opponents. In three games, the opener has smashed his way to 163 runs, including a 99 and a 62 against the West Indies.

The Windies are next up for Andy Flower’s side and, for Hales to top score in that match, as he has done in two of his three appearances against them, a very generous 4/1 is available with Ladbrokes.

If he can repeat these antics on the Sri Lankan wickets he could easily bridge the 76-run gap between himself and Wright.

Craig Kieswetter also holds a strong record against these teams, where he has totalled 155 runs in nine outings as wicketkeeper-batsman. Encouragingly for his chances, he’s recorded scores against all three of New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka, as opposed to Hales who’s only faced the Windies’ attack.

Unfortunately for the other players, Wright himself has a splendid record against England’s Super Eight opposition.

The all-rounder has notched 163 runs, alike Hales, but has taken three times the amount of games to do it. He tends to flourish against New Zealand over the two other teams, where he’s recorded four scores north of 20 in five t20 internationals.

But, if he is to cement his status as England’s top runscorer, there’s every chance he’ll have to register his first half-ton against one of these nations, something which Hales and Kieswetter have already achieved.

Eoin Morgan is the third player on 8/1 who cannot be ruled out of the running.

He has slogged his way to 146 runs, including two unbeaten, end-of-innings low-scores, in five games against his sides’ next adversaries.

Morgan can be explosive if he gets going and if he gets his bat swinging in the Super Eights he definitely has the ability to outscore Wright should he not maintain his good form in the middle.

All odds and markets accurate as of time and date of publication