As England’s Cricket World Cup roadshow takes them to Dharamsala, on the edge of the Himalayas, the equation is a straightforward one: return to winning ways by beating Bangladesh or be left with a mountain to climb.
The manner of Thursday’s pasting by New Zealand has granted Jos Buttler’s side little margin for error, even with the tournament less than a week old. The days since have set the standard, with South Africa blitzing a World Cup record score against Sri Lanka and hosts India tying Australia in knots en route to a six-wicket win.
For England, though, the emphasis for now ought to be not on the pace-setters, but on rediscovering themselves.
For all the pre-tournament talk that the dearth of ODI cricket is simply a reality of the modern landscape, and that the best players these days shuffle between formats with ease, their performance against the Black Caps was one of a team woefully out of sync with the rhythms of the 50-over game.
While it was England’s bowling that was carted all over Ahmedabad, that seemed especially true of their batting, which somehow, but not wrongly, earned reviews as both timid and reckless.
Harry Brook, for instance, hit three successive boundaries off Rachin Ravindra but then holed out gunning for a fourth. In some T20 scenarios, such an over might still be chalked as a win for the batting side, but not in the longer form, with two thirds of the innings still to come.
Liam Livingstone, meanwhile, was riled by four Trent Boult dot balls and felt he had to go, chipping down the ground to leave his side without their most explosive finisher with 11 overs left.
After making the highest-ever ODI score by an Englishman against New Zealand at The Oval last month, Ben Stokes claimed (rather perversely, given he had just made 182 from 124 balls) that he had been wrestling with the tempo of his innings after more than a year out of the format.
“There were a couple of times I had to check myself,” he said. “I looked up at the scoreboard and there were still 23 or 24 overs left. That’s how one-day cricket goes.
England’s performance against New Zealand was one of a team woefully out of sync with the rhythms of the 50-over game
“You can find yourself going well and you want to keep going, but you look up at the scoreboard and have to drag yourself back. You have way more time than you think.”
One of several issues for England is that Stokes has not played since, and though he netted gently on Sunday, Buttler said on Monday that he is “unlikely” to return from the hip niggle that kept him out of the opener.
England have vowed to be cautious with their talisman, and the poor state of the outfield at the HPCA Stadium appears to have negated any temptation to take an early risk.
ICC officials inspected the ground on Sunday and have deemed it playable, albeit only with an ‘average’ rating following Friday’s meeting between Afghanistan and Bangladesh, in which Mujeeb ur Rahman was fortunate to avoid injury after jarring his knee in the surface while fielding.
“The last thing you want is two guys going off with knee injuries,” said Jonny Bairstow said. “It might be a case of boxing a bit clever.”
