England performance review of 2022

If at the beginning of the year, someone had said that England will be most flamboyant and team that will be held in awe, everyone would have laughed. England! Flamboyant! It just is not possible. However, that exactly what happened. Castigated by everyone, including their supporters and ridiculed by everyone outside of England, following the Ashes mauling, England just didn’t know what had hit them but the way not just the primary team but the entire system changed is something incredible. This is England performance review of 2022.

Towards the end of The Ashes, the English side was down in the dumps. It was a chastening defeat that is enough to demoralise any team. Root must have lost all his confidence having failed to win the Ashes in 3 attempts. Desperate situation called for desperate measures and the ECB swung into action.

It really is tough for most of the England cricket team’s management to survive after such a drubbing. The English fans were baying for blood. They are not stirred until England have lost the Ashes for it is the Ashes that they care about and no other series or even tournaments even come close. Even World Cup takes a backseat for the English fans. Naturally, they cannot withstand such an annihilation to the old enemy. Structural problems still remain with English cricket but this is something that the ECB must be seen doing.

Silverwood, Thorpe and Giles removed

Silverwood’s removal must have been the easiest of the lot. He was the one who found positives in a 2.5 days loss at Melbourne when England were bowled out for 65. No one in their right mind you have even thought that there were any silver lining but the fact that Silverwood somehow saw one beggars belief. He must have ideally resigned after the debacle but he chose to stay on but Andrew Strauss could not resist the pressure that was building on him and the ECB. The next was Thorpe. Batting was the biggest disaster in Australia. Except for Bairstow, no one else managed to score a hundred. Even fifties were few and far between. Malan who started the series brightly, faded away quickly and so did Root. Stokes, Hameed, Burns & Pope were quite miserable throughout the series and Thorpe wasn’t able to improve their performance either.

There were also reports about Thorpe’s drinking culture but that is besides the point. His fate was already sealed when England did not score more than 300 runs even once.

Ashley Giles who is credited with removing the role of national cricketer and handing over the entire selection to Silverwood was the third to leave. It wasn’t a surprise at all.

Next came the multiple sackings with more than half the side that played the Ashes, lost their spot. England went to West Indies.

Old nemesis

For some reason, England have found West Indies difficult to handle. Perhaps, years of thrashing by the great West Indian sides have not healed. After a dull and boring couple of Tests, England lost their nerve and lost the final one and thereby the series. A completely new-look team did not change their fortune.

Root fell further into the abyss. His credentials were questioned. It was a miracle that he survived as the captain despite the Ashes loss but to lose to West Indies must surely be the end of his captaincy.

and he promptly resigned.

It brought the most revolutionary change in memory. Ben Stokes became the captain and McCullum the coach. Together, they set-off on a revolution that wasn’t seen since England’s whiteball cricket from 2015.

First up was New Zealand & India

The brutal assault on the New Zealand bowlers on the last day of the Trent Bridge test has left the ones watching bewildered. This is the England team that we are talking about. The same England team that just about a year ago, refused to chase a similar target against the same opponents. They have already changed the way white ball cricket must be played. Astoundingly, they have become the benchmark in those formats. Now, with the blazing batting, has England redefined how Test cricket must be played?

Michael Vaughan, the former England captain and a successful one at that, believes so.

“This will send a message around the cricketing world that this England Test side is to be feared and they will go toe-to-toe with Australia next summer,” Vaughan wrote in his latest Telegraph column.

England went onto sweep the series something they are not known to do because usually, when the series is won, past England teams lose focus and as a result, lose the final one. Not this England side.

Then came the grudge Test against India. Jonny Bairstow, as if to prove that his belligerence against New Zealand wasn’t a fluke, flogged Indian bowlers to all parts of the ground. It was a game the Indian players and supporters will never want to remember. The world now woke up to a new terminology. BAZBALL.

South Africa managed to nibble one Test away from England but 6 wins out of 7 was an astonishing achievement when compared to the previous season. The home season was a triumph for England.

Pakistan series

Of all the teams, apart from Australia, Pakistan is the other team that England really fears. Just consider this. This was just the 3rd win in Pakistan in 25 games. For some reason, England have always found Pakistan a bogey team, be it in Pakistan or at their home. The record speaks for itself. England in the sub-continent is a team that is not always confident of their abilities. Their inability to play quality spin, constant whining about the conditions, the food, the weather and various other factors have put paid to their hopes. Somewhat like the Asian teams in Australia but what transpired over the fifteen days was something extraordinary.

England who have won just 2 Tests in Pakistan in their entire history, won 3 consecutive Tests this time around to more than double that number of wins. It was completely unexpected.

There is another scary thought.

What can England achieve when bowlers are back?

The team that won in Pakistan was not England’s best team. They were missing the services of Archer, Wood and Stone. Not to mention the chief enforcer, Bairstow. That is an awesome firepower. If all the bowlers are fit and assuming that they will back to their best post injury, it really is a scary thought of what England can achieve. They await tougher challenges in India and Australia but based on the current evidence and with that kind of a bowling attack, it will take a real special performance to stop England.

The T20 World Cup

If Stokes & McCullum led the way in Test cricket, Buttler and his ODI mates were not far behind.

The rejuvenation of England

England must really thank Bangladesh for the twin World Cups. If they had not beaten England in 2015, perhaps, England would never have thought of transformation. That ignominy of going out of the World Cup in the league stage and at the hands of Bangladesh must have hurt England and they rose from their slumber. Andrew Strauss was the primary reason for this change. First, he allowed English players to participate in the IPL and overseas leagues. Allowing them to play in IPL takes some courage because it takes away the best English players from County cricket during the initial stages. Yet, the Counties obliged and were happy to go alongwith the vision of the ECB. 7 years down the line, that has paid off immensely.

England will be proud of how they achieved this win despite the absence of some of white-ball beasts. Johnny Bairstow, Jofra Archer & Mark Wood. All exceptional T20 cricketers were laid low because of injuries. Yet, that did not reduce their confidence one bit. They were stunned by Ireland but that did not deter them. Somehow, England found a way and come semi-final, they were at their absolute best. India were annihilated. Pakistan have terrific bowlers. Bowlers who are all capable of hitting the 150KMPH mark consistently. Yet, Buttler and Salt batted with the same disdain that they reserved for every other team.

Ben Stokes and finals

Ben Stokes is such a special cricketer. Something motivates him whenever there is a title to be won. During the 2019 World Cup, it was Stokes who stayed till the very end and now it was Stokes who scored the winning runs. Perhaps, a fitting end. He didn’t follow the usual swashbuckling approach but followed the traditional conservative approach. He stayed patient and weathered Haris Rauf’s storm, Haseen Shah’s swing and Wasim’s pace. Stokes was rewarded with a stroke of luck when Iftikar Ahmed came onto bowl replacing the injured Shaheen Afridi and converted that opportunity effectively and that 5 balls effectively sealed the game.