On the face of it, a nine run loss to the World T20 champions doesn’t sound too bad. England made a game of it, at least. I should stress, therefore, that my headline refers to the performance of the England head coach yesterday, rather than the players’ efforts.
Let’s not beat around the bush here. England lost this game because of poor selection, a poor batting strategy, and a catastrophic dropped catch by a player that should not have been playing (so again, a mistake arising from poor selection).
One of the themes of Ashley Giles’ spell as England’s limited overs coach was his failure to select the right batting order. If I ate a biscuit every time I’d heard a pundit complain that England’s best T20 batsmen were hiding down the order, I’d be fatter than Eddo Brandes.
It is indisputable that in T20 cricket, you must give your best batsmen the opportunity to bat for as long as possible. It’s elementary stuff. So why, Mr Moores, was Eoin Morgan batting at five and Jos Buttler six?
It was like déjà vu from the Giles regime: by the time our best players strode to the crease, the run rate was already over ten and becoming unmanageable. The likes of Morgan and Buttler should be shaping an innings, not trying to rescue it every time.
What made things worse was the totally inexplicable decision to select both Bell and Root in the same side. Both are excellent orthodox players, but they should not be playing together – especially at numbers 3 and 4 in the order.
This utterly boneheaded selection essentially cost England the game. Between them, Bell and Root made 18 off 24 balls. That’s four overs used up (a fifth of the innings), at a rate of just over four runs per over.
Now we come to the Michael Carberry problem. Please don’t get me wrong. I admire Carberry as a player, and a admire his decision to speak out against Giles a few weeks ago. While it’s not always clever to criticise one’s boss, Carberry hasn’t exactly been treated well by the selectors over the years. If anyone is entitled to have a bit of a moan, it’s him.
What gets me is the logic of giving a 33 year old a T20 debut when (a) this is supposed to be a new era, (b) the next T20 World Cup is a long way away, and (c) he was brought in to replace a player (Michael Lumb) who has ostensibly been dropped for being too old.
Just a few weeks ago, Lumb scored a sensational ODI hundred for England against the Windies. He batted brilliantly. One assumes Lumb was therefore dropped to make way for fresh blood. Replacing him with a batsman who is just three months younger, and is prone to dropping catches, therefore makes about as much sense as choosing a test captain on the basis that he comes from a nice family and speaks nicely (I’m sure Maxie will have his say on Giles Clarke’s latest gaff in the coming days).
A cynic might suggest that Carberry was only recalled to show the world that the ECB do actually have a heart, and can indeed forgive and forget. In doing so, they’ve made themselves look like hypocrites: some players who were disengaged from previous squads get a second chance whereas others, who didn’t moan to the press, obviously do not.
The other thing that worried me about England’s strategy was the decision to bowl Chris Jordan at the death. He rarely performs this role for his county with distinction, and he showed in Australia that he struggles to get his yorkers right in the final overs. The diet of full tosses he served up yesterday was therefore no surprise.
The selection of James Tredwell over Moeen Ali also left me scratching my head. While Tredders used to bowl well for England in ODIs, this seems like a very long time ago. He is short of form at the moment, and Moeen has taken far more wickets for his county. The Beard to be Feared (© Gareth Andrew) is also a better fielder and far superior batsman.
In his long career as a county coach, Peter Moores has never won a domestic limited overs competition. I’m beginning to see why. It was a desperately poor start to his regime.
What’s more, it shouldn’t go unnoticed that England’s preparations for this game were incredibly intense. While it is good to practice hard, one would have thought that a somewhat more relaxed approach would be appropriate following the winter.
Everyone knows that Andy Flower had become too intense in his final weeks as England head coach. Indeed, the Cook-Pietersen schism came to a head when, after the Melbourne test, the captain asked the players to do extra work on their fitness rather than get some rest and sharpen their skills.
The news that Moores wants to perpetuate this work ethic is therefore extremely unwelcome. The new regime is supposed to bring about change, not simply reinforce the failing methods of the past.
Imagine if Darren Lehmann’s first act as Australia’s head coach was to set more homework? The Aussies will be laughing at us. Will we ever learn?
James Morgan
That pretty much sums it all up for me. Especially the hypocrisy over the Carbs selection….a selection which alst year would have made complete sense, but doesn’t now.
I don’t go into games looking for negatives, I really don’t but when I saw the squad and then the XI for yesterday my heart sank a little bit. I know we can only work with the talent available, but christ, Bell & Root together, the batting order, Tredwell…
I’ve come to the conclusion that those in charge of the playing side of English cricket are just in fact, incredibly stupid.
They might be fucking genius at maximising sponsorship revenue and squeezing money for broadcast rights, but they’re fucking awful at picking teams and players.
On a side note, surely Hales has to be given a go in the ODIs? I know he’s in and out at best with a patchy at best record for Notts (bizarrely) but got to be worth a go.
All in all, an inauspicious start to say the least.
“They might be fucking genius at maximising sponsorship revenue and squeezing money for broadcast rights, but they’re fucking awful at picking teams and players.”
*Like*
Yay. Just couldn’t run the proverbial piss up in a brewery. The ECB bunch of old farts need pushing off into the sunset to moan about KP forever. In all the years this old gal has loved her cricket I have never known a time like this. Bloody awful people at the ECB ruining the game. We will be in doldrums for a long time to come.
Here here re: Hales. England are not picking him in ODIs because you need ‘a certain technique’ to thrive in 50 over cricket at the top of the order. I can’t remember whether is was Moores or Downton who said this.
This argument is, in Hales’ case, just nonsense. For starters, his technique really isn’t that bad. Secondly, just look at the success Warner and Finch have had for Australia in ODIs. Both started as T20 specialists.
Once again, those in charge do not see wider trends around the world.
Interesting point because I actually thought Hales played as if he was on trial for a ODI spell – showing he could play through an innings. It was not his big hitting spree at all.
The ECB don’t see because they are too far up their own rear ends to notice. Moronic bunch of halfwits. This stuff about Cooky being the kind of man – presumably from the right background (public school don’t yer know) and the nice little family in the nice little house, being the sort of person they want for their Captain? I mean he’s having a laugh ain’t he? So bugger the cricket and winning – as as Rodney Marsh once said at the Aussie Academy: “I don’t want you to die for your country; I want you to bloody kill for it!” Lean and mean and ready for anything. All this crap about nicey, nicey, lovey dovey, everybody nice in the dressing room – probably walking around like robots! We want the best players, the very best players with the best captain in the country. Take a bloody risk. As England did when they brought in Mike Brearley. Get someone who can manage the team on the field. There must be someone out there. Cook is third rate captain but on his day can bat well. We need someone with a bit of grit. We need another Vaughan. Oh bugger me, we’re doomed.
The most logical way to construct your ODI top 6 should be your best 3 T20 batsmen (Hales, Morgan + Buttler??) alternated with and your best 3 test batsmen (Bell, errr Cook?).
Then hopefully one of your test guns scores a run a ball ton, whilst your the t20 players provide a degree of impetus as and when required.
too simple – Clarke would never buy it!
James, a great post. One question – I wasn’t aware of England practising particularly hard etc. Can you elaborate on the point you make about their preparations being “incredibly intense”? I agree that if Moore’s is thrashing them it makes very little sense and bodes ill.
I heard Cork on the radio, and read it in the newspapers, that Moores was training them extremely hard on Mon / Tues. Cork said this morning on TalkSport that he’s never seen an England team prepare so hard – which says a lot considering Flower’s methods. Cork actually mentioned it as though it was a good thing, which was kind of weird! We also know from his previous time with England that Moores is a workaholic (remember that infamous training session after the last gasp ODI defeat in NZ?) and at the time of his appointment numerous references were made to ‘hard work’ etc. Looks like Moores is living up to his billing.
I’m not trying to suggest that good preparation is bad. That would be foolish. I just think that a culture shift is probably needed (similar to the one Lehmann introduced) whereby the players are a little more relaxed and enjoy themselves. I think Flower’s regime went stale partially because everything was so intense.
Blimey. Thanks for flagging that up. It’s interesting isn’t it? I do wonder what on earth the point is of hard last minute training sessions. Surely elite sports coaches realise that any benefits from a PT session won’t be felt until several days afterwards, at least? And therefore it’s totally pointless thrashing players 48 hours before a game – they’ll just end up tired.
You’re right to suggest a cultural shift in approach would be more useful in terms of freshening the squad up than more, or harder, training. I still can’t believe Moores made then undertake that session in New Zealand. A leopard won’t change its spots I suppose!
[…] on TFT, is more scathing, but I see his point. It is easy to say the difference in the two teams were Carberry’s […]
Agree on all points there James, good to be talking cricket again ;)
Root should edge out Bell for me due to his bowling but I can’t see how we can justify both. I do think our best t20 players are batsmen but in the absence of a decent death bowler and quality spinner, teams are going to continue to score big in the last 4 overs.
Re: 50 over team, I hope they change the Bell/Cook opening partnership, Cook opening with a Butler or Hales has the potential to take full advantage of the power play and turn 270 into a 300+ score.
Training methods aside, I’m looking forward to seeing the England team re-engage with the public again ;) (that ones for Maxie)
I agree with a lot of your article. It is incredible to me how out of touch the entire cricket establishment are as to what has happened to the England team over the last 6 months. I can’t think of any other sport where the events would simply be ignored wholesale by everyone (and I mean everyone, including sports journalists, commentators etc). It’s almost as if not much has happened to worry about. Whether it’s Mike Selvey in the Guardian writing pro-ECB articles and then insulting posters before retreating into his ivory tower, Scyld Berry writing constant articles about how good Sri Lanka are now (subtext – losing wasn’t actually that bad despite what the critics say) or Atherton and Hussain nearly wetting themselves with excitement at how close England came to winning and only the “brilliance” of Malinga and his World Cup Winners (and that fact was repeated ad nauseam last night to make sure people realised how well England really played), the Uriah Heep mentality of these “stakeholders” has never been more apparent.
Can you imagine such a meek sheep-like mentality operating in other major sports? It is quite breathtaking.
And as you say, it is clear to even the thickest person in the universe that Bell and Root together is not good for a T20 game . I personally wouldn’t pick either. Bell has played so little T20 games in recent years that it seems bizarre to suddenly start playing him. As for Root, for me he is the most overrated player of recent years – the amount of hype he has had is out of all proportion to his actual ability. He is a decent player with some talent – no more, despite the establishment’s treating of him almost as a messiah.The decision to drop Lumb is staggering – he has performed superbly almost every time he has played, and I would suggest is, along with Hales, Buttler and Bopara, one of our most consistent players in T20 — far more consistent than Morgan whose recent form has been poor.
I actually think we might see Hales in the ODI’s – the ECB and co are very worried right now and they may feel they have to risk it. I have mixed feelings about this. I certainly want to see Cook replaced in ODIs – he simply cannot score fast enough when required and never has been able to. We all know that if he wasn’t Andy Flower and the ECB’s golden boy he would not now be captaining the ODI side. He will only be a liability in Australia for the World Cup. But whether Hales is the right replacement I’m not sure. I think in fact that Lumb might have been better. His form in all forms of the game last year was excellent.
But I do feel that the ECB and their lackeys are very vulnerable this summer. They have chosen it very cynically, realising the cricketing opposition is weaker than at any time in the last 3 years. However, even so, the bigging up of England at almost every turn shows how worried they are. When we keep hearing time after time that they will not ever pick Pietersen again, me thinks they doth protest too much. If they were so sure of themselves, they wouldn’t need to keep announcing it every few days as if we we hadn’t already heard them several times already. We’ve seen Giles Clarke on our screens more in the last few months than over the previous 10 years. That’s why I have come to the conclusion that the only way of fighting back is to hope England lose every match they play (and lose badly). The ECB will only listen when they are forced to – if Cook could be forced to step down as captain, it would be a good sign that things with England cricket might be about to change for the better. I can only live in hope.
Selvey has taken an enormous amount of flak of late, and mainly rightly, as he seems to be living in a parallel universe. The problem is that most of the ex-pro hacks think of the public the same way that the administrators do. Cricket is their private domain – we are intruders.
But I would exempt Scyld Berry from that criticism – he operates very independently, he is a proper journalist, and I find it very hard to disagree with much he ever says.
Many hacks and TV journalists played with Downton. They’re therefore his mates. Hardly a recipe for objectivity.
Pringle, for example, just wrote that Chris Jordan shows promise as a death bowler. Hmmmm. What’s the weather like on his planet? Does he actually watch any cricket?
Jonathan Agnew played all three of his tests with Paul Downton.
Ahh. Now that makes sense. Hmm.