English Blues
As England stumbled to its second consecutive drubbing at the Champions Trophy last Saturday, it would be hard to concur with Andy Flintoff’s remarkably upbeat “the lads showed some character out there” pronouncement. After all, snaring a couple of smart wickets in an unsuccessful defence of a paltry total does not qualify as much of a character testimonial – especially when it comes on the back of some uninspiring batting that resulted in the paltry total in the first place.
Character is what the “lads” will now be required to show in substantial quantity, as they head home early from the sub-continent and prepare themselves for their much-awaited Ashes defence in November.
Flintoff and his under-fire coach Duncan Fletcher will draw confidence from the fact that England is still the number two Test match team in the world and, to be fair to them, deservedly so. The exhilarating Ashes victory apart, they’ve turned in some creditable performances in recent months, at home and away, the latest being the dramatic 3-0 victory over the touring Pakistanis.
But their limited overs efforts – and this is putting it charitably – have been shameful. In 41 outings since January 2005, they have won only 12 games – four of which were notched up against Bangladesh and Ireland. This year, there have been just 4 wins in 19 encounters – with series defeats to Pakistan (2-3), India (1-5) and Sri Lanka (0-5). Not surprisingly, they weigh in at a poor eighth in the ODI rankings, ahead only of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
It is hard to explain why a team that has been able to beat the best in the business in the five day game has been found so desperately wanting in the shorter format. One popular school of thought suggests that England lacks the so-called “one day experts” in the mould of the Gilchrists, Sehwags and Jayasuriyas, and have therefore never had a batting lineup that is threatening enough to succeed in the limited overs game. The implication here is that their batting is solid on the whole, but has been unfortunate not to have lusty hitters in its ranks.
This argument is specious on several counts. Firstly, in Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen England has two of the cleanest strikers in world cricket, so there is no reason to believe that they have had tough luck on the aggression front. Secondly, the assumption that the comparatively sedate batsmanship of the others has translated into solidity, is debatable. The top order caving in meekly twice in as many outings in Jaipur is just the most recent in a string of poor shows. In eleven of their last twenty defeats, half the side has been back in the pavilion with less than 120 on the board – not signs of a particularly robust top order. Finally, the theory also casts a blind eye towards England’s serious lack of bowling depth, which has invariably resulted in ten, often twenty, overs being bowled by a bunch of innocuous part-timers.
The biggest problem for England is that they seem to have fallen for this “one day experts” fallacy themselves, and have sought to rectify it by some astounding alterations to their lineup. Geraint Jones and Matt Prior – wicket-keepers who can at best be described as decent bats – have found themselves pushed to the top of the order, ostensibly to boost the scoring rate. Jones managed an average of 19.85 in 7 outings as opener (highest: 39, strike rate: 66.5) while Prior averaged 23.50 in 10 innings at the top of the order (highest: 45, strike rate: 74.1). It’s a similar story for Ed Joyce, who made a name for himself batting in the middle-order for Middlesex, but found himself elevated to the opening slot when he was picked for England. His scores in the three appearances he made before being discarded: 10, 13 and 8.
These ill-advised promotions, compounded by injuries to key players like Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick, have meant that the top order has never really worn a settled look. This year alone, there have been six pairs of openers, with the longest continuous run for any one pair being just four games. The only slot where there has been some stability is number-3, where Ian Bell has been persisted with for ten games on the trot. Not surprisingly, the results have been good – Bell has averaged 44.3, with three scores in excess of 75.
The bowling, meanwhile, has not escaped its share of problems. The absence of Simon Jones and Darren Gough due to injury has been a major blow, but what has probably hurt England the most is Steve Harmison’s poor form. On a good day, Harmison is capable of extracting disconcerting bounce, and is a handful even on tracks that are unlikely to have quickies queuing up. On not-so-good days, however, his radar tends to go totally awry and he begins to look quite hittable. Unfortunately, the good days have been rare this year – his economy rate for 2006 is an exorbitant 5.97 runs per over, as opposed to the previous seasons where it is a much more acceptable 4.85.
Further, with Flintoff not allowed to bowl, the ‘fifth bowler’ has become an acute problem in ODIs. The present solution seems to be a mix of Collingwood, Yardy and Dalrymple, who turn in fifteen-odd honourable overs between them, but are unlikely to be giving too many sleepless nights to top-class batsmen.
This lack of bowling depth is something that has been masked in Tests (over 90% of England’s Test overs this year have been bowled by their top four bowlers), but has been exploited by the opposition in ODIs. Unless another quality all-rounder in the Flintoff league is discovered, it would probably make sense to invest in a specialist bowler (Panesar?) even for ODIs, rather than bits-and-pieces cricketers like Dalrymple.
Fundamentally, England needs to realize that the two forms of the game are not all that different and do not demand radically opposing approaches. Further, unless you have a talent pool as deep as the Australians, chopping and changing is not only likely to be futile, but also result in a loss of winning momentum. Unfortunately, England does not have much time to get back into this critical ‘winning habit’ before the World Cup begins next April. They play only one major limited-overs competition, a tri-series Down Under against Australia and New Zealand, before heading off to the Caribbean. Clearly, if cricket’s most sought after jewel is to make its way back to the land it originated in, Flintoff and his men have their work cut out.
Add comment October 28, 2006
