England were woeful at the Champions Trophy – now Brendon McCullum faces a huge decision
Not much went right for Jos Buttler's team.
England’s woeful showing in the Champions Trophy, as well as their two white-ball series in India beforehand, has left many questioning the management’s philosophy of trying to unify the bowling attack across all three formats including Test matches.
The reason for this, and it has come after Test coach Brendon McCullum was given charge of the other two formats (another unification), was it would meld and bond the bowlers, the quicks especially, into a band of brothers for next winter’s Ashes series, a holy grail should England manage to win it.
It will all seem rather spurious now that McCullum has overseen nine defeats in England’s last ten white-ball games. Not that the bowling was the only problem in the Champions Trophy but it was rather a large one given they allowed Afghanistan to reach 325 for seven after reducing them to 37 for three in the ninth over.
The main aim has been to hit their opponents with speed. Few batters relish the 90mph stuff and in Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Saqib Mahmood, England had three such quicks with another three, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse, a tick below that benchmark.
The trouble was nobody reminded these bowlers of their special power (raw pace) and instead allowed them to indulge in their belief that they were skilled bowlers with all the tricks of those less able to subdue batters with speed and aggression.
As a result slower balls and cutters abounded, almost none delivered with a bluffer’s timing and panache, which meant most were despatched to the boundary.
Such variations can be a good thing in keeping batters in check but only when used judiciously. According to a recent ECB coach, modern batters set themselves to hit the slower ball from quicks to the boundary knowing that they need only to deflect pace-on deliveries to keep the scoreboard ticking.
If England’s analysts knew that, and they ought to, Archer and Co should have been told to use slower balls only as a last resort.
As former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm said recently: ‘If I am blessed with being able to bowl at 90mph why am I going to bowl 70mph cutters?’
Which is exactly what Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai, a tall fast bowler with similar pace to Overton, did after his mix of hard length and bang-in short balls brought him five England wickets.
By contrast, England’s quicks tried to be fancy with a slew of slower balls and got smashed, the pace trio conceding 20 boundaries compared to the 11 given away by England’s three spinners, two of them non-specialists.
Sixes and fours are T20’s main currency but in 50-overs it is more nuanced. In the game against Afghanistan England struck more boundaries (32) than their opponents but lost by eight runs, perhaps proving the adage of former Australia captain and coach Bobby Simpson (one scoffed at by modern coaches) that the team with the most singles usually wins.
And that is the problem with most of England’s batters bar Joe Root. They don’t have ones and twos in their intentions. Take opener Phil Salt. A whizz, bang innings of 25 off 17 balls has value in T20s but is a liability in 50-over cricket because it exposes the middle-order to the new ball.
Salt does not appear to understand that – though whether it is entirely his fault, given 50-over cricket’s lowly status in the domestic fixture list (a position unlikely to change now that the Hundred’s monied glitz has grabbed even more attention), is a moot point.
Jos Buttler’s captaincy was another weakness. When you appoint the best player as captain they need to lead from the front. Buttler didn’t, even dropping down the order to six to play the finisher’s role; a job, ironically, that requires high levels of confidence which had long since drained away from him.
Much has been made of his captaincy versus that of his predecessor, Eoin Morgan, a man whose leadership credentials have become myth-like, somewhat unjustifiably. Morgan was fortunate to have a slew of high-class all-rounders like Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and even Chris Woakes to call upon, something this team did not.
All-rounders help to balance sides but curiously, and this might explain why England sometimes veer between indomitable and fragile, they get some of their all-rounders the wrong way round.
Take Moeen. For his county he was primarily a batter who bowled spin, something which was reversed when he played for England. The same goes for Sam Curran who is really another batter who bowls, though he often takes the new ball for England in white-ball cricket.
Despite not being involved in the Champions Trophy, Curran, 26, will be one being considered for the white-ball captaincy which McCullum may split, having both a T20 captain and a 50-over captain. Harry Brook, also 26, is another candidate though there are those who feel the extra responsibility will overburden someone who is a three-format player.
It is a valid point but I think responsibility can sometimes help freewheeling talents like Brook to focus on what is important. For Brook that may be maximising his earnings in the Indian Premier League, but if it isn’t then at least one of the white-ball captaincies should be his.
Yet, whoever is captain the challenge remains as it has since the birth of international one-day cricket in the early 1970s. Don’t overthink it. Make sure players know their roles. And only plunder when you cannot steal.
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