Bowlers And Skipper Do The Job

Well, well, well. It looks like England victories in India are like buses. And I don’t mean that they’re big, red, overcrowded, and driven by people who get angry if you don’t give them the right change.

I wrote an article the other day on why I think T20 is probably England’s strongest suit these days. The bowling just looks better in this form of the game: Mills provides a bit of X-factor, we’ve got options coming out of our ears – Rashid didn’t even bowl yesterday – and Moeen’s calm head and respectable economy rate matter more than his inability to bowl unplayable hand-grenades.

In many ways, yesterday’s comprehensive win was the perfect all-round performance. Our bowlers took regular wickets – which meant India’s batsmen we unable to generate much momentum – and then our batsmen calmly picked off the runs.

The aforementioned Mo was obviously the star with the ball, but everyone did their job pretty well. And once Roy and Billings got our innings off to a decent enough start, and then Root played himself in, the result was never in doubt.

I should also give a special mention to Eoin ‘I can still play a bit’ Morgan. He batted well – a mature captain’s knock by all reports – and proved that he can still, err, play a bit.

I really hope Eoin has turned the corner. I’ve written many times before that I used to be a huge fan of his. Between 2009 and 2012 he was absolutely brilliant – one of the best limited overs specialists in the world – but I don’t think he’s played particularly well since then (and the stats bear this out).

At times Morgan has looked a shadow of his former swashbuckling self – he’s looked short of confidence and technically frail – but perhaps the swagger is slowly returning? I certainly hope so.

England already have a plethora of exciting one-day batsmen. Adding a rejuvenated Morgan, who used to be a great improviser and strong finisher, would make England’s recipe all the more delicious.

James Morgan

9 comments

  • I read an article where Morgan was saying he has changed his style of play. His view is that because the team has so many big hitters he doesn’t need to do it anymore. Consequently he adopts a more defensive style of play. Perhaps that is/was what was going wrong.

  • A good team performance. Perhaps we could sharpen up the fielding, but otherwise, we looked like we were never in trouble.

  • 50 overs is real cricket, though.
    20/20 is real enough, but it’s a slightly different game, luck playing a greater role I think, and the balance between batting safely and scoring rate not really existing. Still, if we can whitewash India it would be very satisfying.

  • I thought Morgan looked very confident. I wouldn’t say swashbuckling but those sixes looked superb.

  • Good summary apart from missing the one obvious improvement. With both Buttler and Billings in the side give the gloves to Billings. I am a huge fan of Buttler as a T20 bat (but not a test bat) but Billings is much the better keeper and must be worth a few runs for England behind the stumps compared with Buttler.

  • On the subject of T20. A huge well done to Ian bell, Tim Bresnan & also David Willey whove helped the Perth Scorchers to another title.

    England really do have a wealth of talent in this format.

  • I’ve been such a massive fan of cricket. Never really played that much thought. I recently bought cricket batting pads for my brother for his birthday and he seemed so happy with the purchase. They are really good quality.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

copywriter copywriting