What happened to England?

England, the team that redefined how white-ball cricket must be played, is now struggling in the same format. A team that once talked about scoring 500 runs in ODI, is now unable to even win consistently. There has been changes in personnel, drastically at that, but fortunes have not changed. Eversince the retirement of Eoin Morgan, who was the architect of the flamboyance that is usually associated with the England teams post 2015, the captains who succeeded him, were unable to measure upto expectations. What happened to England? It is a question even the ECB is asking themselves. There does not seem to be light at the end of the tunnel.

England will have to reinvent themselves in the short format. The banishment of Johnny Bairstow, Jason Roy and the retirement of Ben Stokes from ODI cricket, is finally having an effect on the team. Bairstow and Roy were the opening combination that more often than not, provided a blistering start. The rest of the batsmen, just carried on from there. Their replacements, Phil Salt or Dan Lawrence is unable to carry forward the torch. They have lost 13 games out of the last 20. It includes three consecutive series defeats. The latest one being against the West Indies.

The ignominy of the 2015 ODI World Cup, propelled them to completely alter the way they approached the format. Eoin Morgan called for brave cricket and the players responded spectacularly. Scores of 350 and 400 suddenly became the norm. The teams batting first, never were sure of a score England could not chase. In trying to score those extra runs, they fell short by a few. The fear of the English batsmen, drove teams to nuts. The situation is completely the opposite now.

Uninspiring leader and an extended lean trot

Jos Buttler, who tookover from Morgan, proved to be an uninspiring leader. He chose to open the innings when usually, he bats in the middle order. Though his batting did not suffer a great deal, he just could not stem the tide. Yes, England did win the 2021 T20 World Cup but that was largely due to a tenacious innings by Stokes. Apart from that one triumph, they were insipid. The early ouster from the 2024 T20 World Cup and more importantly, the disastrous campaign during the 2023 ODI World Cup, foretold something brooding. In the ODI World Cup, they just could not come to terms with the Indian pitch conditions and as a result, a team that was touted as one among the favourites, lost games against low ranked teams and finished at the bottom.

This was further exacerbated by the early exit in the league stage at the T20 World Cup. England just did not know how to change their fortune.

Less experience

The current English ODI players are short of experience. Not a lot of ODI games are being played. It appears that since the first edition of The Hundred, the players who made their debut for England, ODI cricket occupies only 41% of their overall games. Dan Mousley, when he made his debut, told Sam Curran that he really didn’t know what he was doing.

“He almost admitted himself he hadn’t actually played loads of 50-over cricket,” Curran said

Phil Salt, another of the mainstay in England’s ODI setup commented, “I don’t think there’s many players in this team that you could go through and go ‘oh they’re doing a great job right now’,” said Phil Salt ahead of the third ODI, where he made 74. “That’s the reality of it because we’ve not played a lot of 50-over cricket. I’d love something like a domestic 50-over competition. I’d love the opportunity to play in that so you can get the rhythm and it’s not always stop-start.”

Wrapping up what happened to England?

England do have a local ODI tournament but that space is now taken over by The Hundred and the tournament is now towards the end of the season. It is undesirable to lose a series to a team that did not even qualify for the Champions Trophy. Some like Joe Root and Ben Stokes, do not need a lot of internal ODI games to perform at the highest level. They are cricketers who are born to play the game but proper ODI preparation is required for the mortals.

In the crowded schedule that teams from India, Australia and England find themselves in, something will have to give in. For long, there have been talks about scrapping ODI cricket altogether. There is merit in it. The players are only humans and there is a limit to their fitness and energy. If the ICC and the respective boards insist on playing more and more games, the diminishing ability of the players in one format or all the formats, is a given.

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