3 Chinks in England's ODI juggernaut 

Rewind to the pre-2015 World Cup era, which were the teams that dominated world cricket in the shorter formats? Does England even feature in the top 5 list (for that phase)? They were embarrassed pre World Cup and post the World Cup. In 2014, they lost to the Netherlands in the 2014 World T20, India beat them 3-1 in England, they lost to Sri Lanka twice (both home and away), Australia beat them twice as well (both home and away) and the list goes on.

Then they were knocked out of the 2015 World Cup after the Group stage where they won just two games (against Scotland and Afghanistan). Australia, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka thrashed the Eoin Morgan-led side. An inspiring Bangladesh side beat them to qualify for the quarterfinal and sent them packing.

However, the 2015 World Cup might have been the best thing to have happened to England. Post the 2015 World Cup drubbing, England have completely changed the way they approach and play limited-overs cricket. Captain Eoin Morgan has led the team admirably as England have lost just three bilateral ODI series (excluding the one-off ODI against Scotland) – to Australia at home in 2015, to South Africa in 2016, and to India in 2017 (both away from home).

This juggernaut and revival in the white ball cricket have been phenomenal and as Australia found out in January earlier this year and are finding out in the ongoing 5-match ODI series currently, England have been on roll. They have found players who have stood up in difficult circumstances and bailed them out of tricky situations. In 65 games after the 2015 World Cup, England have lost just 19 games out of those.

However, every team has some or the other problem (or chink) in their armour. Hence, here we look at some of England’s armour and what are the few problems in this terrific ODI juggernaut.

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#3 Defending a target

It is no secret that most teams in world cricket today like chasing in limited-overs cricket. It helps them assess how to go about and pace their batting innings. But teams have learnt to adapt and have started winning batting first.

There’s absolutely no doubt that England are a magnificent chasing team. No target is beyond them. Their batsmen one after the other keeps coming at you and hence no target can be safe against this England batting line-up. Even recently they went after Scotland’s 371 and fell just 6 runs short.

However, their challenge is to win games while batting first. Stats suggest that in the last two years, they’ve won 72% batting second (chasing) but only 55% while setting a score i.e. while batting first. There will be situations in the course of the next one year before the World Cup and during the World Cup when they will not win the toss and will have to bat first. Those are the situations where England need to adapt and learn how to assess what a good score might be on that particular track.

#2 Vulnerable bowling

Plunkett has done well for England in ODI cricket in recent times.

England have a decent pace attack. Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Ben Stokes, Tom Curran, and David Willey form the current pace battery of the England side. Woakes and Willey are swing bowlers who can exploit and move the new ball. But as we’ve seen in recent times, there’s hardly any swing on offer in ODI cricket.

Plunkett, Wood, and Stokes can hit the deck hard and can be skiddy at times but they also tend to go for a lot of runs. Add Jake Ball to the mix who is the reserve pacer (sitting on the fringes). He is also a similar kind of bowler who runs in and hits the deck.

However, they’ve not been consistent and have been found wanting on multiple occasions. Take, for example, the recent game against Scotland. The no. 13 ranked team in the world plundered 371 against this bowling attack. Yes, the pitch was a belter but being the No. 1 ranked ODI team England are expected to do much better. Even in the second ODI against Australia at Cardiff, England allowed the Aussies to recover from 164/5 in the 31st over to 304 and gave them a chance while chasing 343.

Coming to the spinners, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali have done well in the two games against Australia. England relies heavily on these two to control the game in the middle overs and if not, they tend to leak a lot of runs at the death. Hence, sometimes, England can be vulnerable with the ball.

#1 The batting can be found out on tricky surfaces (One Dimensional approach with the bat)

England have one of the most dominant batting line-ups in ODI cricket at the moment. Jason Roy, Johnny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and Sam Billings – each of the listed player comes hard at you. Hence, it is no surprise looking at the number of 300+ scores England have racked up in the last 2-3 years.

But there is one problem with this batting line-up. They have struggled when the ball has done something in the air and off the pitch. Take, for example, the game at Lord’s last year against South Africa when they were 20/6 as the Proteas pace attack troubled the English batsmen with swing and seam. The England batsmen kept driving, flashing and going for their shots despite losing wickets one after the other.

One more instance is this year when they lost 5 wickets for just 8 runs against Australia in Adelaide as Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins ran riot. The also fell short of a good score in a crucial semi-final in the Champions Trophy game last year against Pakistan when they played on a dry surface and the Pakistani pacers got some good reverse swing. They ended up scoring just 211 and were knocked out of the tournament.

Their approach could be termed as one-dimensional as they try to keep going hard irrespective of the situation. Even in the game against Scotland, England seemed to be in a position of strength with about 25 to get off 28 balls and Moeen Ali tried to slog one when there was no need for it. Yes, when it comes off it looks good but when it doesn’t it makes you and the team look silly.

Hence, there have been multiple occasions when the England batting line-up has failed to assess the conditions and then try to get to a competitive total. They have also failed to read the match situation at times which has cost them as well. Their method to keep going after the bowling might work on most days but they can also fall short when the surface is tricky.