Where Did It All Go Wrong?
England's dreadful World Cup
As England start, rather better than of late, their game against India, a few reflections on where it has all gone wrong. The search for blame is natural but it is in the nature of punditry and explanation that we seek grand causes when things go wrong. Maybe it is simpler than that and maybe, as I write these words, Chris Woakes is proving that sometimes good players play badly and sometimes they play well. But that doesn’t sound very sophisticated so we seek something else.
There is no argument about how bad England’s World Cup has been. One win in five games so far. Even in the unlikely event of England beating India in Lucknow and avoiding mathematical certainty for the moment, the end will be soon in coming. The tournament has been a disaster and barely any of the squad had emerged with an enhanced reputation. The question to ask is why it should have been so bad and there is no shortage of suspects. The culprit is selection, it’s strategy, it’s the lack of 50 over cricket, it’s the Stokes injury, it’s the Hundred, it’s the captain. Yet maybe, in fact, it’s none of the above. Maybe there isn’t a reason as such beyond the fact that England have played badly and sometimes in sport teams do that.
It is hard to spot any obvious, or significant, error in selection. A case could be made for the retention of Jason Roy but the batsmen picked instead (Malan and Brook) had earned their places. Ben Stokes coming out of retirement deprived someone else of a spot, but this is Stokes. No other current cricketer is as liable to do something extraordinary. Moeen Ali is over the hill and it wasn’t a very high peak in one-day cricket in any case, but he still has his moments. Perhaps Liam Dawson should have been given a go but is that the difference between triumph and disaster? Brydon Carse probably should have been selected as the new Liam Plunkett, to take wickets in the middle overs. But all of these are marginal calls and this is quibbling.
Can we blame the captain? Not really. Jos Buttler is no Eoin Morgan but a team that is playing well needs a lot less captaining than one that is playing badly. Was Pat Cummins a terrible captain for two games but now a good one? No. There was a definite error of strategy in the decision to chase against Afghanistan and therefore to bowl first in the humidity of Mumbai. That said, you would expect England to win that game. In general, far too much causal power is granted to captains. Not so long ago Buttler led England to victory in the world T20 tournament so nobody can say he cannot do it or that he lacks the respect from the rest of the side. Besides, if Stokes is not available for the job it is difficult to see who else, among the certain selections, would be any better.
The structure, it has to be said, has hardly helped. It is certainly true that England have not played enough ODIs. Between 2015 and 2019 England played 88; between 2019 and 2023 just 43. Also, the eccentricities of ECB scheduling have meant that England have rarely managed to field their best side. Not since the summer of 2022 has anything resembling the team that was sent to India played a game together. That said, very few players at this World Cup from any nation have played much 50 over cricket lately and it doesn’t seem to be bothering plenty of them. England’s problem with one day cricket is, in fact, a function of the stress we have placed on Test cricket. As Michael Atherton pointed out in a characteristically judicious piece in The Times, in the past four years, England have played 50 Tests, compared with South Africa (25), New Zealand (29), Australia (34), India (34) and Pakistan (30).
The truth about the mess is simpler. Some good players have had a bad time. Bairstow and Buttler have done very little, and Harry Brook hasn’t even managed to stay in the side. Liam Livingstone has had a very disappointing tournament. With the ball, Sam Curran is averaging 70; Mark Wood 77 and Chris Woakes 82. Moeen Ali has been an anonymous and I suspect Sam Curran will always be the most celebrated bits and bobs man in the world. David Willey and Chris Woakes may lack the pace to take wickets in the prevailing conditions. Only Reece Topley has done himself justice. But none of these players are suddenly bad cricketers. If the World Cup could be turned off and then back on again, England might do better. Sometimes we just have to accept the random but brute fact that a team of talented players just didn’t play very well and then enjoy watching the other teams who did.