Blackouts, Whitewashes and Red Faces, England’s One Day Tour of India

Perhaps it was an omen? As the five-match One Day International series between India and England kicked off at Hyderabad on October 14th, Sky Sports were forbidden from broadcasting the game by the BCCI. Normal service was thankfully resumed shortly thereafter, much to the relief of the England fans watching back at home.

At that stage of course optimism was still rife that England could compete in the series, making up for a wretched record in India of only 1 win from their previous 13 matches. Hell, some of us even thought a series win was possible!

Ah the innocence of wild optimism...
 
India were 129 for 4 batting first at Hyderabad and at one stage England felt they were in with a chance. But then Mahendra Dhoni came in and scored 87 runs off 70 balls including 10 fours and 1 six, all during the supposedly slower "middle overs". 
 
It’s not just that Dhoni is an incredible finisher; it’s that he can do so on any type of wicket, and at any stage of the match. He played well in England during the summer, apart from Rahul Dravid India’s best player all tour, and he’s been even better back home. 

England could do worse than try to emulate Dhoni in their search for a credible wicketkeeper-batsman rather than looking for the next Adam Gilchrist, as has been their want of late.
 
Craig Kieswetter’s wicket-keeping was erratic and inconsistent this series, taking stunners and dropping dollies in equal measure, but given the explosive nature of his batting, (seldom seen on this tour though to be fair), it is likely he will be given another chance. 
 
In truth though, all of England’s batsmen struggled. Too many starts were not converted and as a result England only batted out their allotted 50 overs once in 5 matches. That simply isn’t good enough in One Day cricket.

Eoin Morgan is England’s best limited overs batsman, particularly when it comes to scoring aggressively against spin, and his absence was sorely missed in India. All of England’s batsmen struggled to keep the runs coming when India’s spinners came on, often giving their wickets away when trying to force the issue. The likes of Ravi Bopara may struggle to come back from this series, failing again to prove that he’s quite up to this level of cricket.

England also failed to embrace spin in their bowling attack. Promising young leg-spinner Scott Borthwick was in India but his only appearance came when replacing Graeme Swann in Mumbai, the series already dead and buried, rather than being picked to bowl in tandem with Swann, which would have been a much braver and more aggressive move on sub-continent wickets.
 
You can’t pick a spinner just to make up the numbers but if England didn’t think Borthwick was ready for India, why didn’t they take Monty Panesar instead, who at least has the experience to cope with the pressure of playing in front of India’s vociferous fans. Either way, playing two competitive spinners is crucial if you are going to restrict runs and take wickets in India. 

Another man sorely missed was Stuart Broad, and perhaps if he had been in India, England would have been more inclined to bowl a second full-time spinner. His inclusion, possibly at the expense of Samit Patel, could have allowed Borthwick to play without having a detrimental effect on England's batting lineup.

Of course we have to offset the disappointment of this series with the "bigger picture" and that of course comes in the shape of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand 2015. England will still fancy their chances there on the harder, bouncier wickets, but England’s One Day form down under wasn’t much better in January, losing 6-1 against Australia.
 
The back drop to that series of course was that England had won the Ashes earlier on that tour, and therein lies the biggest obstacle to England's success of in One Day cricket; their obsession with test cricket.

Domestic cricket in England is set up to produce successful test match players, and obviously we have seen the success of that policy over the past 12 months. 

However as a result, One Day cricket comes second. Limited overs County Cricket is still 40-overs-a-side and that immediately puts England at a disadvantage when it comes to the international scene. The middle overs that England failed to convert successfully in India are exactly the part of the game they miss out on when playing domestically. This needs to change if England are to compete in 50 overs international cricket.

Despite 2011 being an incredibly successful year for English cricket generally, this side will return home from India disappointed. 2015 is a long way off, but England will need all of that time to ensure they are competitive at the next World Cup, otherwise there could be a few more England players with red faces in 2015.

England in a Spin Over Selection in India

Desperate Decisions or Time to Experiment?

4-0. Not quite Manchester United vs Manchester City (ouch!)  but still a fair hammering for any side in any sport.

England have been out-played in every department for the duration of this One Day Series and even a shuffle of the pack for the forth One Day International in Mumbai couldn't stop the rot for the tourists.

Scott Borthwick and Stuart Meaker, two young, promising bowlers who went to India optimistic, part of a young England squad that was building for the World Cup in 2015, came in for Graeme Swann and injured Jade Dernbach in Mumbai, a dead rubber, hardly the stage they were hoping to perform on.

England's selectors have developed a reputation for being loyal to a fault to the players they put out to play each match, a policy that has reaped dividends in test cricket, but with a One Day side that didn't look right from the first ODI in Hyderabad two weeks ago, changes should have been made earlier than the match after this series was already settled.

Of course that's incredibly easy for me to say sitting on my comfy chair with my soft cushions, but England have played only one front line spinner in all four games on this tour of India, yes India, you know that country that notorious for slow, spinning wickets, and that's just madness.

Swann and Borthwick should have bowled in tandem in Mumbai, if not earlier in the series which would have given England 20 overs of spin that would have taken the pace off the ball and made scoring harder to come by for India. 

Instead, with three seamers trying their best to extract some life out of the dry, dead Indian wickets, the part time spin of Samit Patel and the medium pace dibby-dobbers of Ravi Bopara, the solitary spinners   just haven't had enough support to build pressure on India, and the home side cruised past England's totals in each of the four innings played.

Clearly the batting has struggled to post enough runs too, and whilst there has been ridiculous criticism of Jonathan Trott, again on this tour, questions still remain above the heads of both Craig Kieswetter and Ravi Bopara.

Eoin Morgan has been missed and presumably he will come in for Bopara when he returns from injury, and it may be that Kieswetter drops out of the team, again, this time for Ian Bell to return?

I'm not sure if it's mildly embarrassing or even insulting for Bell that he has not been given the chance to play in this tour, or perhaps the selectors know only too well what Bell can do and therefore don't feel the need to test him out in India, but why take him if he wasn't in the selectors thoughts?

But none of the batsmen have excelled in India, and that includes captain Alastair Cook. In fact, Cooks form is perhaps the most worrying of all the top 6. It hardly fills a team with confidence if their skipper is putting the side into bat (as Cook has done all tour) and then falling cheaply, as Cook has also done all too often.

Cooks appointment as captain was always a curious one given the fact he hadn't played any One Day International cricket for several years before hand. In fact, he wasn't even in the One Day squad for the World Cup earlier this year, also in India. 

Cook is still new in the role, and deserves time to build his team now he had been appointed, but whether he was the best candidate for One Day captain, rather than simply the next in line for the test side, is another question.

Oddly, worryingly, sadly, England will return home from India with more questions about their One Day policy than they had when they headed out to the sub-continent just a few weeks ago.

The selectors have been loyal for a long time, but perhaps their decision to back the side when it wasn't set up correctly to begin with was a mistake on this occasion? Sometimes no change is good, other times you need to cut your losses, be strong and make positive changes. That hasn't happened in India.

It will be interesting to see what England's One Day side looks like when they play Pakistan in the UAE early in 2012, but I expect some changes from the side that has lost so meekly in India. 

Jonathan Up The Creek? Trott On!!

If people think that taking Jonathan Trott out of England's One Day International side will result in a transformation of England's fortunes in this form of the game, they've clearly not been watching much One Day cricket lately.

Trott scored 98 of England's 298 runs at Mohali in the 3rd of this 5 match One Day International series against India, yet all I've read about since the match is that his place is in jeopardy!

Never mind the fact Alastair Cook fell cheaply again. Never mind "The Next Gilchrist", Craig Kieswetter can't get past 30 and keeps dropping sitters. Never mind England are playing 3 seamers on slow, flat wickets and only one front-line spinner. Yup, if Trott was dropped, things would be alright!

For me, Trott is the key man in this One Day side along with Eoin Morgan, who is sorely missed in India by the way.

Morgan can win a game from nowhere, killing opponents in seemingly dominant positions, and you cannot underestimate the loss of a player like that on this tour. India have Dhoni, an equally capable "finisher", and he has won 2 of the 3 games in this series for India almost single-handedly.

Morgan can attack even when facing spin from both ends, a pre-requisite for excelling on the sub-continent and something all England's other players struggle to do, even Trott. 

But, Trott is so hard to get out. Even Morgan goes cheaply sometimes and in those situations, it's essential Trott is there, otherwise England's innings can and usually do fall apart.

If Trott is in, the players at the other end can go for their shots. Pietersen and Patel both filled their boots yesterday, and 298 is actually a decent total. The fact England didn't defend it isn't attributable to Trott in my opinion.

England's fielding has been abject in this series, a surprise given recent high standards, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, you're never going to excel in India playing 3 seamers and only 1 decent spinner. 

I know it extends the tail, but I honestly think Scott Borthwick needs to play in the last 2 games. England are desperate for more spin options, so why not give Borthwick a go, he has already played international cricket and done well, albeit at T20 level.

I like Ravi Bopara but there is an ongoing debate as to whether he has the stomach for cricket at this level and with a change in fortunes required, perhaps Rav is the man to step aside? his part time medium pacers don't seem to be fancied by Cook and he just isn't delivering runs on this tour.

Kieswetter is also a question mark. He looks good in home conditions, but a delicate touch is required on the sub-continent, and I'm not sure Kieswetter possesses one. Ian Bell has to return to the side now, he is too good a player to sit on the margins and, incredibly, bring the drinks out, as he did in the last game. He could replace Kieswetter and Bairstow could keep wicket.

Finally, let's play a fast bowler who is suited to these conditions. Stuart Meaker is a skiddy bowler who should be able to serve up plenty of yorkers at the death, something amazingly England's current attack seem incapable of doing, so give him a chance too.

There's plenty of changes that could and perhaps should be made to this England side to make them more competitive, certainly on the sub-continent anyway, but Trott isn't one of them.

They're up the Creek, but Jonathan Trott must stay.

Payback Time For England: ODI Series Update

Indian fans and pundits alike were hurt by their teams’ capitulation in England this summer to the extent they named the return series that began in India last Friday as the "Payback Series".
 
And if teaching England a ruddy good lesson in One Day cricket was India's primary objective for this tour and let's be honest, it was a little bit, then India have succeeded, with devastating effect.

 
India have won the first two One Day Internationals of the tour by a mile and have been better than England in every facet of the game. The likes of Dhoni, Gambhir and Kohli have scored big runs, Umesh Yadav and Vinay Kumar look dangerous with the ball, a far cry from the impotent attack that toured England this summer, and perhaps most surprisingly India’s fielding has been razor sharp – much better than their English counterparts.
 
But for as good as India have been, and they have been very good, England have been poor and have gifted India these first two games.
 
Alastair Cook believes his sides problems are partly psychological, and certainly with only 1 win from their last 15 One Day Internationals in India, England may have a mental hurdle to overcome, but more worrying for Cooks’ side is that the balance of the team doesn't look right and their tactics seem to be just scratched in the sand, changing from game to game.
 
England have lost wickets regularly in both innings in this series so far, and that is of particular concern. One has to question why for example, after his captain was out for a duck having won the toss and choosing to bat first, Craig Kieswetter elected to prod at a wide ball that did very little, giving his wicket away without troubling the scorers himself in Delhi?
 
Surely England's batsmen know that if you lose a wicket, it's best to be disciplined and consolidate for a period, rather than carrying on and losing further wickets in quick succession?
 
England’s bowlers are not completely absolved from blame here either. Apart from Bresnan, who has been the pick of the bowlers in both games, the rest have struggled.
 
England have played 3 quick bowlers in both matches but with no pace in the pitches or movement off the seam of through the dry Indian air, 30 pretty tame overs have been sent down which, once the new balls have worn soft, give the Indian batsmen time to set themselves before using the pace of the ball to earn easy runs. As bowlers tire, so the more expansive shots become easier.
 
England should have learnt all this from the World Cup here earlier this year. During that competition, the teams that fared best took pace off the ball almost all of the way through the innings to make it harder to score runs. Its fundamental stuff on the sub-continent.
 
England have Scott Borthwick in their squad, a young and talented leg-spinner from Durham, why not give him a go? Dropping a seamer for a second spinner may not rest that easily with England, but they have to adapt to the conditions and playing three seamers in a One Day International in India into opponents hands.
 
Cook mentioned a mental block that England need to overcome to triumph in India, but perhaps the issue is more deep-rooted than that. 40 overs-a-side cricket matches are played on the county circuit in England as opposed to 50 over matches at International level and perhaps that 10 over disparity has an effect on England players, to the extent they rush and panic when batting and try and force the issue when bowling?
 
It's a theory, but by playing these One-Day-specific tours regularly going forward as the ECB plans to, England players will surely learn how to pace an innings better, when to push and when to consolidate, not to mention how to bowl to the conditions available to them; it still astounds me how few yorkers English bowlers bowl at the death when opposition attacks send down seemingly little else during the final few overs for instance.
 
There are fundamental flaws in the way England approach One Day cricket away from the comforts of home, particularly on the sub-continent, and these will take time to resolve. They might not win this series, in fact they might be on the end of a bit of a hiding from India, but if they can begin to develop a more savvy approach to One Day cricket, it won't have been a wasted trip after-all.

India vs England Series Preview - And The Point Is...?

Critics have said that the series between India and England starting in Hyderabad on Friday 14th October is little more than a money spinning extravaganza, taking advantage of Indian fans love of limited overs cricket with a meaningless procession of five One Day Internationals and a T20 during a 3 week tour that has been shoe-horned into an already hectic international schedule.

Indeed this tour isn't even an obligatory one. The ICC demands that every major cricketing nation plays each other home and away over a nine year period, something known as the Future Tours Programme and England touring India is certainly not a series in danger of defaulting on that promise any time soon.

For me though, this tour is a great idea. Never mind the financial implications; this One Day series pits current World Champions India against an England side hoping to claim their crown at the next World Cup in New Zealand and Australia in 2015.

Captain Cook with Head Coach Flower

Since winning the Ashes in January, the first time England have triumphed Down Under in 24 years, Andy Flower has put success in One Day cricket at the top of England’s agenda. However after a disappointing showing at the World Cup in April 2011, losing by 10 wickets to Sri Lanka in the quarter finals, changes were needed and Alastair Cook has since replaced Andrew Strauss as captain in this format.

With home series wins over Sri Lanka and India already secured under Cooks captaincy the future looks bright for this young side, but this tour of India will be their toughest assignment yet and we will learn a lot about just how far England have come by the end of it.

Historically England have struggled in India, winning only one of their last 13 One Day Internationals here, so any success enjoyed in this series will be a real statement of intent from Cook’s men.

But regardless of how this series progresses, it's just nice to see England and the ECB focussing their efforts on 50 over cricket, rather than annexing a One Day International series awkwardly to the end of long test schedule, as if it were a warm-down exercise to the main event.

Look at the Ashes schedule last year. Many people, including Sir Ian Botham, bemoaned the decision to play 7 ODI's at the end of such a draining and intense test series. Those One Day Internationals were supposed to be a warm-up for England’s World Cup campaign but with players tired and unmotivated, poor performances and injuries were all England took home from that series.

Whether One Day cricket is your thing or not is up to you, but one thing’s for sure: for England to prosper in this format it is imperative that they play more series like this one, focussing specifically on the 50 over game, building a specialist squad to compete with the best teams around.

This series should tell us a lot about whether England's masterplan for world domination in every form of cricket is on course, but it is unlikely to be one-way traffic. Given India’s strength at home, plus England’s appalling record there, even a narrow defeat may give rise to optimism in the camp, depending on how well the side performs.

My only concern is that in continuing the rotation policy that sees Jimmy Anderson rested for this series, will we actually see an England One Day side that is essentially the first XI regularly enough before the World Cup in 2015?

In Australia last year, Alastair Cook shined the ball for the whole of the test series. Why? Because out of all the England players, he sweated the least (sweat on the ball reduced the chances of getting the ball to reverse swing).

To be the best, that level of detail needs to be considered, and I just hope that England remember to hone a winning first XI as well as amassing a huge pool of players from which to choose from.

Or perhaps I'm just being pedantic now?