New Delhi: The shocking exit in the 2015 ODI World Cup prompted the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to implement a complete overhaul with steps taken to inspect, dismantle, repair, and rebuild the One-Day cricket structure in the country.
The massive change in approach and personnel paid rich dividends as the Three Lions dominated the top sides with several record-breaking performances and achieved what they set out to do in the four-year cycle with the maiden ODI World Cup title at home in 2019.
A decade after the start of England’s ODI revolution, the find themselves standing at the crossroads, again. The Three Lions have lost more ODIs (30) than they have won (29) since winning the World Cup under Eoin Morgan five years ago. The cycle also included England’s shameful exit in the 2023 ODI World Cup group stages after losing six of their nine matches.
The defeat in the first ODI at Nagpur on February 7, Thursday was England’s ninth in last 10 ODIs against India. If the 2019 champions lose another game on Sunday, it will be their fourth successive series defeat in the 50-over format.
These are damning stats for a team, orchestrators of both white-ball and red-ball revolutions in world cricket in the last decade.
Brendon McCullum, the former New Zealand captain, is credited with leading the red-ball revolution with England’s Test cricket team since 2022. His aggressive style of play dubbed “Bazball”, has made England a force to be reckoned with in Test cricket.
The English fans will hope that after taking over as the white-ball coach in the ongoing India series, he leads another revolution. But to regain England’s ODI powerhouse status, McCullum must fix some issues urgently to arrest the sorry slide.
Top-order struggles
Despite a brisk start given by the openers, England continued their dismal run at the top order, losing three wickets in the powerplay at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur.
Gone are the days when Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy, both currently out of favour, provided the Three Lions blazing starts consistently. However, in the last three years, England have lost a whopping 88 wickets in the first 10 overs in 44 matches, which is almost two wickets per match in the first 10 overs, more than any Full Member nation during this period.
(Stats: Cricinfo)
Not exposing Buttler to the new ball
England must break the domino effect of their top-order struggles to protect Jos Buttler, their captain and best batter, to the new ball and give him the best possible chance to optimise his potential.
Before 2022, Buttler had only come to the crease before the 15th over 10 times in 112 innings but since then he has done the same 13 times in 29 ODI innings.
Buttler is a kind of batter who flourishes under freedom but he more often finds himself in a repair-job situation.
(Stats: Cricinfo)
Big scores
Since the end of Morgan-era, England have struggled to stamp their authority in ODI cricket and a big reason for their struggles is the lack of centuries and big partnerships.
In between their 2015 World Cup exit and and 2019 World Cup victory, England batters scored an eye-watering 55 centuries in 99 ODIs. That number has dropped drastically since then with England batters scoring just 23 tons in 63 matches down from an average of 0.56 centuries per game to 0.37.
The number of century partnerships, one of the key factors to contribute to the success of a team, have also nosedived.
Since the 2019 World Cup, England have had just 31 century partnerships, way below 69 they scored before lifting the world title.
(Stats: Cricinfo)
Diminishing the ‘all-out’ effect
Getting all-out in an ODI is far from ideal as it prevents the team from utilising the full quota of overs and posting big scores.
That’s the exact reason why England must stop getting bowled out. On Thursday, England, skittled for 248 in 47.4 overs, ewer bowled out for the 21st time in 44 ODIs since the start of 2022. Only Zimbabwe (62) and West Indies (49) have been bowled out on more occasions in this time-frame.
It’s not a coincidence that England dominated ODI cricket between 2016 and 2021 as during this five-year period they were all-out just 20 times in 98 innings.
Stats: CricViz
Make a habit of taking middle-order wickets
Taking middle-order wickets in as important if not more than early wickets in ODI cricket. It allows teams to make comebacks and swing the momentum in their favour. This is evident by the fact that England have failed to take wickets between the 11th and 40th over and has suffered for not managing to do so consistently.
Since the beginning of 2024, English bowlers average 42.4 runs per wicket in the ‘middle overs’. While England are fourth in the list in the unwanted list in terms of the average after West Indies, Bangladesh and Ireland, they are the worst when it comes to economy rate in this metric.
Stats: CricViz
England’s dominance in ODI cricket, culminating in their 2019 World Cup victory, has dramatically reversed. Since then, they’ve suffered a significant decline, marked by high dismissal rates, a lack of big partnerships and centuries, and a failure to take crucial middle-order wickets. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
