England, not-so-long hailed as white-ball cricket revolutionaries for their game-changing performances across both ODI and T20I formats after the 2015 50-over World Cup that impacted scoring rates and statistics worldwide, have plenty of issues to address ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy. Be it the absence of some prominent players, dip in form of senior mainstays or their spin troubles, there is plenty of things currently holding back the team with skipper Jos Buttler and newly appointed coach Brendon McCullum at helm.
England will kickstart their Champions Trophy campaign against arch-rivals Australia from February 22 at Lahore, with matches against Afghanistan (February 26) and South Africa (March 1) coming later. Leading up to the series since the 2023 ODI World Cup, England’s ODI form has been mostly average at best, with few glimpses of brilliance that led them to simultaneous world championship glory in ODIs and T20Is. Under their new head coach McCullum, they have failed to unleash his ‘Bazball’ school of cricket badly during the white-ball series against India.
*Bilateral series form: After the 2023 50-over World Cup, England has participated in four ODI series, out of which they have failed to win any. Since the 2023 World Cup end, England has played in 14 ODIs, out of which they have won just four. In these 14 ODIs, England has lost eight while defending a total, though twice it was as per the Duckworth-Lewis Method. They have won only once while defending. While chasing, England has won thrice (once as per Duckworth-Lewis Method) and lost twice. In nine matches away from home, they have won just two.
Their series records are: 1-2 loss to West Indies (away from home), a 2-3 loss to Australia (at home), 1-2 loss to West Indies (away from home) and a 3-0 loss to India (away from home).
*Positives:
-Clarity: One thing that England carries with itself is clarity in gameplay. The mantra of playing attacking and positive cricket given by former skipper Eoin Morgan which won them the 2019 World Cup, has been passed to the next generation of England players and leadership. While the execution has been missing plenty of times, the clarity being retained by this generation about their brand of cricket is a positive.
-Fine form of Adil Rashid: England’s lead spinner, Adil Rashid has been in an excellent form. Since the 2023 World Cup, he has taken 13 wickets in 11 matches, averaging 41.30, with an economy rate of 5.69 and best figures of 4/64. While his bowling may not result in truckloads of wickets, the pressure he creates on batters makes things easy for other batters. He finished the ODI series against India as the top wicket-taker, with seven scalps in three matches at an average of over 27 and an economy rate of 6.36. He could be England’s safe bet at the National Stadium in Karachi, where spinners like Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis (both Sri Lankans), Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik feature in the top 10 wicket-takers.
-Recent strong performances of Harry Brook, Ben Duckett in ODIs: In these 14 ODIs played, Duckett and Brook have put their hands up for England on many occasions. Duckett is England’s leading ODI run-getter after the 2023 WC, with 530 runs in 11 innings at an average of 48.18, a strike rate of 108.60, with a century and four half-centuries. In the recent series against India, he emerged as top-run-getter with 131 runs in three innings at an average of 43.66, a strike rate of 122.42, with a half-century to his name.
Brook, despite his poor performances against India, has done well to become England’s second-highest ODI run-getter after WC2023 till now, with 477 runs in 11 innings at an average of 53.00, a strike rate of 106.23, with a century and three fifties. His best score is 110*. During the series against Australia at home, he managed the burden of captaincy well, scoring 312 runs in five innings at an average of 78.00 and a strike rate of 127.86, with best score of 110*, a century and two fifties.
*Negatives:
-Lack of reliability in the opening: The opening pair of Phil Salt and Ben Duckett is extremely destructive on its day. Salt though explosive, has not proven to be a player who can stay long on the crease. Out of his 28 innings, Salt has faced more than 30 balls only six times, which shrinks down to three occasions against Test-playing nations.
After England’s last massive white-ball reset following a premature group-stage World Cup exit in 2015, the prominent English opening pair of Jason Roy and Alex Hales faced up 1,413 balls in 42 innings and 1,454 balls in 35 innings leading up to the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, with their balls per innings average being 33.64 and 41.54 respectively. They together scored eight centuries and 17 fifties. The innings per century across their 77 combined innings was 9.6 innings per century and 3.08 innings per fifty-plus score.
Coming to Salt and Duckett, they have played 421 balls in 14 innings and 385 balls in eight innings respectively, with their balls per innings average being 30.07 and 48.12 respectively, with Duckett outclassing Salt by miles. Even Will Jacks, who played six innings as an opener, has played 164 balls, with balls per innings average of 27.33. In their 28 innings overall as a trio, they have scored a century and six fifties each, which means 28 innings per century and four innings per fifty-plus score, way poorer than Roy-Hales Salt has been the most underwhelming performer with just two fifties in 14 innings and a lot of England’s opening woes come down to him throwing away his wicket.
The question is: Though these attractive 30s and 40s could look good in T20Is, are they truly needed in ODIs?
-Form of senior stalwarts Jos Buttler Joe Root: They say, a team is as good as its leadership. The team’s senior-most batters, skipper Buttler and Root, have experienced a dip in form. Since the end of the 2023 WC, Buttler has scored 153 runs in six innings at an average of 30.60 and a strike rate of 90.00, with two half-century and three single-digit scores. Root, on the other hand, seems to have taken Test cricket to be his top priority. While his numbers in Tests have been astonishing for the last four years, same cannot be said for ODIs. In 31 ODIs after World Cup 2019, Root has made 778 runs at an underwhelming average of 29.92 and a rather disappointing strike rate of 82.24 by his standards. He has made just seven fifties in 28 innings with the best score of 86.
-Recent inability against spin: England’s woes against spin were showcased during the recent tour of India, where the Three Lions would often stumble against spinners. In the ODI series, they lost 13 of their 30 wickets to spin, with 13 lost to pace as well. It was even worse in T20Is, where they lost 29 of their 48 wickets to spin.
Come the Champions Trophy, spinners like Adam Zampa, Glenn Maxwell, Travis Head, Matt Short, Tabraiz Shamsi, Keshav Maharaj, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed etc could create problems for England.
-Lack of prominent all-rounders: England is missing some prominent all-rounders this time around, with Sam Curran, Will Jacks and Ben Stokes being left out of the squad, Moeen Ali being retired and Jacob Bethell being ruled out due to injury.
*Top performers for England between the 2023 World Cup end to now:
Top run-getters: Ben Duckett (530 runs in 11 innings at an average of 48.18 and a strike rate of 108.60, with a century and four fifties), Harry Brook (477 runs in 11 innings at an average of 53.00, with a strike rate of 106.23, a century and three fifties), Phil Salt (409 runs in 14 innings at an average of 29.21, with two half-centuries), Liam Livingstone (403 runs in 13 innings at an average of 40.30, with a century and fifty) and Will Jacks (308 runs in 11 innings at an average of 28.00, with two half-centuries).
Top wicket-takers: Adil Rashid (13 wickets in 11 matches at an average of 41.30), Brydon Carse (nine wickets in eight matches at an average of 44.77), Livingstone (nine wickets in 14 matches at an average of 53.66), Gus Atkinson (eight wickets in five matches at an average of 35.87) and Matthew Potts (eight wickets in six matches at an average of 26.62).
England Champions Trophy squad: Jos Buttler (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Tom Banton, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Saqib Mahmood, Phil Salt, Mark Wood.
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