England have become blasé and are being punished for it
We should not be surprised that England are in this mess. It has been far too cosy for too long in the white-ball set up.
The team has been in decline for a while and is making the same mistakes all over again in selection and tactics.
Looking from the outside, it seems to me the players are too powerful. It is all lovely and nice in the set-up but I have never seen lovely and nice win World Cups.
Fundamentally, there is a new dynamic where they run the show without enough strong, disciplined leaders.
I guess the one advantage in T20 cricket, is that it can turn around quickly and England have done it before. They lost to Ireland two years ago but rallied to win the tournament. They can suddenly become world beaters and are a better group when they have copped a bit of criticism and have the point-to-prove mentality but it feels like a big step up this time.
I love the free-spirited approach. It is how you coax the best out of players but English cricketers generally need a firm, guiding hand at the same time. In 2019 England won the World Cup playing fearless cricket but Eoin Morgan ran that team with an iron fist. Players knew where they stood and were wary of crossing him. Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower were two strong leaders as well. Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes need to start winning again but they changed the way the Test team plays by giving clear, robust leadership.
It is frustrating because this time it is down to being too blasé, thinking it would all click with old players rediscovering their touch.
Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott have to get the players into the mindset of playing great cricket but the swagger has gone. Australia did to England on Saturday what England did to Australia in T20 cricket for the previous few years. Australia just looked like a team that knew what they had to do to achieve their aims. They just went out and bullied England.
What is really worrying is that even some of the lesser teams like Scotland are better fielding sides than England. How can that be the case? England are still very dangerous with the bat but there are massive flaws in the bowling.
They have two spin options that have been around for a long time. Teams are used to facing Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid so nothing surprises the opposition.
The fact England have not picked Reece Topley staggers me. Most T20 teams generally want left-arm pace bowlers and spinners who can turn it either way.
England have gone for Chris Jordan because he is an all-rounder who hits sixes at No 8 and is their best fielder by a mile. For me England are not good enough to not pick their best, specialist bowlers. If that weakens the batting fine, they have to go with the best bowling attack.
Three years ago England were the best white-ball team in the world and everyone else was trying to copy them. But you can’t sit still in sport and England did that.
Other teams copied them but brought more skill and discipline to their cricket. England have to be very careful. This team is clearly coming to the end and they will go through transition after this World Cup.
There will be new players coming in. They will be good because the English system produces decent white-ball cricketers these days but they will not be so good that we are favourites to start winning trophies straightaway. It will take two or three years because you need that time to develop a team.
We have to be open and honest and say this last year has been a shocker for England in all formats. The coaches of this team will be questioned if England are knocked out at the first hurdle. But let’s not beat around the bush. The Test team have not won anything either. They have just been hammered in India and made some poor decisions on the field and with selection. I think they got most of their Ashes teams wrong last summer as well.
At the 50-over World Cup, the management group messed up basic strategic decisions. At the highest level, at World Cups, you will be exposed when that happens.
We never sustain success for long in English cricket. We have a couple of good years, win the odd trophy or big series and think we have made it only for everyone else to catch up and overtake.
It is exactly what has happened to the white-ball team. It has been a stark awakening for them.
They won the World Cup in 2019 and we thought they would dominate for years but they were battered in India four years later. They won the 2022 Twenty20 World Cup but two years later face being knocked out by Scotland.
It is the story of English cricket. It makes them interesting to watch because you never know what you are going to get but for once it would be nice to learn from Australia. I don’t like praising them, but they just turn it on at World Cups and bad series or tournaments are just blips between successes. It is the other way around for England.
