by With England’s World Cup defense now just eight months and 10 games away, Jos Buttler’s side are running out of time to find the winning formula.
Schedule clashes and injuries for next month’s tour of Bangladesh mean they will only have their strongest team for a maximum of seven of those games, against New Zealand and Ireland in September, ahead of the tournament. And some of those matches are likely to come after England have had to name their 15-man squad.
Buttler felt that, despite missing the series, the picture became clearer over three games in South Africa. Jofra Archer returned, Olly Stone claimed, Jason Roy stayed in the hunt, Dawid Malan underlined his class and Moeen Ali’s batting returned to form. Most importantly, Buttler’s hitting was sensational.
But how many of the 15 places are, barring injuries, absolutely nailed? Buttler, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Archer, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid and Sam Curran appear to be safe. Moeen and Chris Woakes’ experience leaves them close, as does Harry Brook’s all-format class.
Contrast this situation to 2019. So the team that played England’s first ODI of the year had only one change before the World Cup final (Moeen out, Archer in). Archer’s arrival had been foretold by then, and the race to stay in the fray had begun among the sailors; eventually, David Willey was lost. There was time for a late surprise, with Alex Hales’ drug ban dropping him.
In fact, the two cycles have been polar opposites. After another desperate World Cup campaign in 2015, England simply started over. They chose a group of players and invested in them. Those players were largely the same ones who reached the World Cup final: nine of the final XI played in the “ground zero” series against New Zealand in 2015.
The consistency of the England team during those four years was remarkable. Between World Cups, they played 88 ODIs and won 58 of them. They used just 34 players at the time (two of them, Tim Bresnan and Zafar Ansari, featured only in one ODI washout in Dublin before new management was appointed, Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace). Of the other 32, 13 played more than 40 of the remaining 87 games and 12 played less than 10.
a changing landscape
The consistency of the England team during those four years was remarkable. Between World Cups, they played 88 ODIs and won 58 of them. They used just 34 players at the time (two of them, Tim Bresnan and Zafar Ansari, featured only in one ODI washout in Dublin before new management was appointed, Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace). Of the other 32, 13 played more than 40 of the remaining 87 games and 12 played less than 10.
Since the 2019 final it has been very different, mainly due to the changes in the game in general. The International Cricket Council incorporated the ODI Super League for World Cup qualification (they have since ruled it out for the next cycle), which reduced the series to three matches. From 2015-19, England played 12 series of five games and another series of four. This time, each series has been three games.
So since the 2019 World Cup England have played just 33 ODIs. But the game has changed in other ways too, with Covid-19 causing further divisions in the teams (especially when England had to find a whole new team to face Pakistan in 2021, and won 3-0). He has already used 37, more than in 88 games in the previous cycle, and could follow the debut of Rehan Ahmed and Tom Abell in Bangladesh. By the time he reached the World Cup, he would have played 43 games, half that of the previous cycle (which was not abnormally crowded; between the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, England played 82).
If you thought reducing the ODI series from five to three matches would free up space on the calendar, think again. England have played more T20s in that time, and franchise tournaments have sprung up as regularly as a game of whac-a-mole.
The changes to the game design were apparent at the end of this series, when no player went home. Three went to New Zealand for a test series, three went to the United Arab Emirates for a franchise competition, and the other eight stayed in South Africa for another. Scheduling clashes continue in Bangladesh, but this was all partly in the gift of England. In 2020, the players withdrew from a hitherto rescheduled series in South Africa, and in 2021, the board “mutually” postponed the tour of Bangladesh.
Perhaps, in the England approach, there has also been a bit of complacency since 2019. Only Liam Plunkett was immediately transferred, with Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes following him ever since. Otherwise, a golden generation of players (all of whom except Archer are now in their thirties) were endorsed to make it to the next World Cup. Only Curran, who actually debuted in 2018, has really carved a place for himself since then, and that’s largely down to T20 performance.
The changes in the cricket landscape have puzzled these players in ODI cricket. There is no internal competition to find shape, as there was until 2019, and a T20 diet is not easy to find shape again. Roy, Moeen and Buttler have spoken about those struggles in South Africa, and the captain is looking to encourage an open dialogue in the group about tactics and timing in 50+ cricket.
Buttler’s innings at Kimberley, coming on at 14 for three and sharing 232 with Malan was a case in point.
“After a win like that, it’s a good time to remind people of the way 50+ cricket can work,” he said. in 50+ cricket, it’s not all just a stretched out T20.
“It’s been a really beneficial series. We have a clear direction of where we’re going, reconnecting with how we’re going to get there, the way we want to play.
Another difference from 2015-19 is that England were preparing for a home tournament, so 47 of those 88 games were at home. They knew ODI cricket in England inside out. This time the preparation for India, in Asia, has been limited, making Bangladesh a major tour.
This has been a chaotic cycle and as it draws to a close England have plenty of places to play.
