No ink will likely be wasted on Jonny Bairstow’s grievance at a marginal lbw determination, nor the way wherein most of England’s line-up shrank from the second the opener fell to the seventh ball of the chase, when there’s a lot to inform of 21-year-old Rahmanullah Gurbaz and his coming of age innings of 80 from simply 57 balls.
And it’s going to appear an irrelevance to even notice that the competition began with Jos Buttler’s blunder in electing to subject, when it ended with such an underdog triumph, solely Afghanistan’s second in World Cups.
Here and now, although, England haven’t any time for sugar-coated retellings. Make no mistake about it, the defending champions are in deep trouble, after a 69-run defeat that hardly did justice to the way wherein they had been outplayed made it two losses in a gap run of fixtures that, on paper, seemed a reasonably variety slate.
“Before the tournament starts you have a different idea of how the first three games would pan out,” Buttler conceded, and given his aspect had overwhelmed New Zealand comfortably in a tune-up collection earlier than flying to India, they may have anticipated at this stage to be three out of three.
Instead, with two-thirds of the group stage to go, already England are taking part in the permutation recreation. Six wins will doubtless be the benchmark for a assured a semi-final place, although 5 with a good net-run-rate could about do. To get to even the decrease finish of that threshold now, the holders should beat at the very least two of India, Pakistan, Australia and South Africa and that’s assuming they maintain Sri Lanka and the Dutch which, on Sunday’s exhibiting, is not any given.
There are myriad theories, each macro and micro, for England’s underperformance to this point, however to hone in on these three matches alone, the dual crux of their battle lies in a batting line-up taking part in with out the swagger that made it the world’s greatest, and a bowling assault merely not fairly ok.
England weren’t way back a aspect that batted with aggression nearly to a fault, however towards Afghanistan seemed tentative and allowed the spinners, particularly, to dictate phrases.
Harry Brook, the exception in his 66 from 61 balls, hit the chase’s solely six within the thirty first over. Before then, nobody else had even tried.
Defending champions England are in deep trouble on the Cricket World Cup
/ AP
One can acknowledge the significance of Jason Roy in setting the tone for this England at its peak with out pondering that the opener, in his present information, could be doing so in the identical vein now had he not been axed on the eve of the event. Ben Stokes may, although, albeit from decrease down the order, and can certainly have to come back into the XI towards South Africa on Saturday now, whether or not absolutely match or not.
Among England’s bowlers, nevertheless, there isn’t any apparent fast repair. Coming into the event, the suspicion was that the seam cabinet was fairly much less well-stocked than in 2019 and, at current, it’s wanting even barer than first feared, with the normally dependable Woakes woefully out of rhythm and Curran struggling to affect 50-over innings in the best way he has T20s.
Bar a dramatic return to health for Jofra Archer late within the event (assuming England are even nonetheless in it by that stage), Buttler should discover a strategy to get by with what he has.
There could be a rising temptation to throw Gus Atkinson in on the deep finish within the hope the novice can present a spark.
With his dodgy knee and now a niggling hip, too, even Stokes can not assist England there.
