After a resounding thumping at the hands of New Zealand, England find themselves sat at the bottom of the tournament they topped four years ago. With plenty of talk surrounding what this means for the team, Tuesday’s game against Bangladesh offers the perfect opportunity for England to rediscover the approach that took them to the summit of 50 Over cricket.
As tends to be the case with England losses across formats plenty of criticism revolved around the idea that England threw away their wickets. To some extent this is true, but not because of the separate notion that as a team they were too gung-ho.
Dismissals such as Jonny Bairstow’s and Liam Livingstone’s were soft, but not because they lost a wicket through blind slogging. This time round it felt as if England were pulling their punches. Bairstow gently lifted a check drive into the New Zealand field, whilst Livingstone offered a similarly lofted effort to mid-wicket.
For all the talk before the game from Jos Buttler about ‘attacking not defending’, this was not a batting unit looking to put pressure back onto the bowlers. When Jonny Bairstow hit the second ball of the game for six it had all the hallmarks of a big England performance, the reality is that this never really materialised.
This was a trend that continued across players, with Harry Brook the only one who strung together some shots to the boundary. Despite the array of part-time bowlers that New Zealand opted for, England never made them pay.
As a game it plays part of a trend we have seen recently. The first ODI against New Zealand in this summer’s series was a similarly thorough loss, and the reaction from Jos Buttler was that he wanted to see his team take more risks.
Over the series we saw England regain their ability to play something closer to the style they became famous for. Interestingly this was a sentiment raised by Joe Root after the loss, making the bold claim that from now on they’ll be trying to hit the ball twenty rows back.
The reality is that this is an England team with players who are at their best when they’re playing to score. Dismissals from gentle aerial shots happen because of a lack of commitment to shot selection, players are better off fully backing whatever kind of stroke they opt for.
In this respect a dismissal like Brook’s is less frustrating, he got out backing himself to clear the fielder. This did not happen, but it is crystal clear what his intention was.
Playing Bangladesh affords England the chance for a soft reset. England simply need to trust the method that made them.
