From Bad To Worse For England

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

And the problems just get worse

 

November 29^th 2014

 

A week ago, I wrote:

“The 7-match series against Sri Lanka will be a good litmus test as Sri Lanka were absolutely awful as stand-in stuntmen for the West Indies in India. If England lose badly, it will be no good blaming the schedule, the lack of practice, team absences or the fact that Sri Lanka’s chefs cannot find the right ingredients for the England diet guide’s recipes.”

Two matches. Two defeats. No one has any illusions that it will not finish 7-0. Thanks to heroics from Moeen Ali and Ravi Bopara, the first game was close. The second has been simply embarrassing. The mantra is to take the positives and there have been none, apart from another nice innings from Ravi Bopara as the batting fell apart. This time Moeen Ali could not cover for the deficiencies of others with a quick-fire innings at the top of the order.

The batting was poor, the captaincy was worse. With bowlers having most success by taking pace off the ball, the decision to give Ravi Bopara just four overs in the first ODI and none in the second was hard to fathom. The fact that Bopara was by far the most economical bowler in the 1^st ODI makes it even harder to understand.

There is a strong suggestion that team selection is mainly made now on the grounds of the captain wishing to repel boarders. It is just about the only tenable conclusion when a player as talented and as successful in limited overs cricket last season as James Taylor cannot get a game. Alistair Cook knows that James Taylor would be a plausible alternative as ODI captain if he establishes a place in the side; he has most to lose if James Taylor plays and makes a success of it.

Similarly, with Moeen Ali making a success of opening, Alex Hales would, logically, only get a game at the expense of the captain.

Ah! The captain! Sixteen ODIs in 2014, but just one 50, falling in the 40s no less than four times. Only three times has he failed to reach double figures in an ODI in 2014, but the weight of runs is just not there and, all too often, when he gets past 20 and needs to move up a gear, he is getting out. His form is not dreadful, but if he is to have a place in the side he must either anchor the innings consistently at a decent pace for 30 overs and make some big scores, or learn to work the ball around to keep the score ticking through the powerplay overs so that the side gets fast starts. Watching him play out a maiden as Moeen Ali treated the bowling on its merits at the other end was a little painful to watch.

Eoin Morgan started the year with 282 runs in the 5 ODIs in Australia. Since then he has had 12 innings and reached 20 just four times, amassing 206 runs. Morgan’s place must be coming under severe threat, if only as a wake-up call to him. Scores of 1, 31, 3, 40, 12, 17, 28, 10, 32, 14, 1 & 17 are just not good enough. Nine times he has reached double figures, just four has he reached 20: he is getting starts and getting out.

Less culpable is Ian Bell. He has 4x50 in ODIs in 2014, although none since May. Since then, he has gone slightly, but distinctly off the boil. However, today was his 150^th ODI. He is just short of 5000 ODI runs and his 2014 numbers are very close to his career figures, which should save him from most criticism.

With talent of the class of Hales, Lumb, Taylor and Ballance unable to get a game and England losing and the World Cup getting closer, Alistair Cook cannot afford more defeats, or personal failures. A batting order starting Lumb, Hales, Moeen Ali, Bopara, Taylor, Root & Buttler might not win the World Cup, but would at least give England a chance of shocking a few sides. With Broad and Anderson to return, Finn on his comeback and Woakes showing signs that he is making good his talent, England would start to have the basis of a decent side that would bat very deep.

One wonders if Alistair Cook will survive as captain if England lose 7-0, or even 6-1, even if he starts to score some runs: how much patience do the selectors have with him? Possibly not much more.

Alistair Cook Faces The Moment Of ODI Truth

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Alistair Cook Faces the Moment Of ODI Truth

 

November 23^rd 2014

 
After a full two months without cricket, England, without Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson are on the road again. The 7-match series against Sri Lanka will be a good litmus test as Sri Lanka were absolutely awful as stand-in stuntmen for the West Indies in India. If England lose badly, it will be no good blaming the schedule, the lack of practice team absences or the fact that Sri Lanka’s chefs cannot find the right ingredients for the England diet guide’s recipes.

The absence of Broad and Anderson allows Steve Finn to come back and lead the attack. In a low-key series, he will have far less pressure on him that if he were playing in England. Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes and Harry Gurney all have their reasons to want to make a statement. England fans tend to be hyper-critical and unforgiving. Players are compared unfavourably with their equivalents in other sides and the idea of backing the XI that is picked is anathema to most: most fans are happy to see their side lose if it is a step in the right direction of getting their pet hate player dropped.

Right now, the knives are out for Cook, Bell and Jordan. The fact that all three have, in the not too distant past, done good, sometimes great things for their team is conveniently forgotten.

Cook probably has the most difficult task and one that has just been made even harder. There was a big outcry when Alex Hales was dropped for Moeen Ali for the first England warm-up game. The fact that Hales’ innings against India (40 from 63 balls, 42 from 55 balls, 6 from 7 balls & 4 from 9 balls) speak of an increasing paralysis as the Indians worked him out after a quick start in the first match, was ignored by most fans. The sad fact is that having scored 32 from his first 31 balls in ODIs, his next 103 balls produced just 60 runs and his total freeze after a decent start – just 8 runs from his last 32 balls – probably lost England that first match. What Cook was not betting on was that Moeen would continue his golden form, hitting a 50 from 21 balls and making a golden case to continue opening in ODIs. If Hales, who will surely play at least three of the ODIs as an opener, starts to work out how to work international bowling, with its greater accuracy and smaller margins for error, the pressure for a Hales-Moeen opening partnership will become intense. It doesn’t take a PhD in Astrophysics to work out that in that case, with hitters of the class of Bopara, Taylor, Morgan, Buttler and Root available, at least one of Cook and Bell and possibly both will be surplus to requirements when England work out their best side.

There is a feeling that Alistair Cook has earned a stay of execution as captain, but that his role in the ODI set-up will become untenable if England have a poor winter. Cook argues, not unreasonably, that the only time that England have reached #1 in the ICC ODI rankings was with him as captain, but he is smart enough to know that ODIs evolve rapidly and that England’s current set-up is outdated. There is also a feeling that an opportunity was missed by not giving the captaincy to Eoin Morgan or James Taylor for this series. Probably the natural captain of the ODI side post-World Cup is James Taylor: it will be interesting to see how many opportunities Alistair Cook is willing to give him to state a case to take over as ODI captain.

However, the hooks are also out for Chris Jordan. Memories are short. England fan memories are shorter still. During the nightmare tour of Australia, one of the few positive points was the fire that Chris Jordan showed with the new ball in the ODI series – despite modest seeming statistics, mainly caused by taking some punishment at the death, he was one of the few success stories of the winter and certainly should have been in the Test side ahead of Tremlett and Rankin. Last summer though he has been in and out of the side. He has lost form, rhythm and confidence as a result. And, to make things worse, players and analysts have got on his case, advising his to change his run-up, to change his action. Chris Jordan’s great asset has been his natural talent and ability. England history is littered with bowlers who were coached out of their natural actions and lost all form and confidence as a result (Bob Willis, Norman Cowans, James Anderson and Steve Finn have been just a few of the high-profile casualties).

In Australia, Chris Jordan ran in, let the ball go at 90+mph and just got on with it. He went for a few runs, but also put in some hostile spells, quickly establishing himself as the new ball bowler. Right now, Jordan is struggling. He is spraying the ball. He is expensive. He needs to get back to doing what he does well: just run in and let the ball go and knock over top-order batsmen. Nothing saves runs as well as getting the opposition 2 or 3 down inside the initial powerplay overs.

In the one warm-up game that England were able to play – albeit winning on D/L after a shortened Sri Lanka A innings – Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes (another who is turning to a pet hate of the fans) were superb, aggregating 17-1-49-3 between them. Chris Jordan went for 48 though, from just 5 overs. He is running out of time to turn things around and, just as important, to convince the fans.