After 45 days in India, zigzagging across this vast country on multiple flights and coach journeys, England’s World Cup campaign ends at Eden Gardens on Saturday. Pakistan, needing a mathematical miracle to reach the semi-finals surely beyond even their logic-defying abilities, are the last opponents for a once great team that exits the stage.
It has been a great team. Recency bias can be pretty potent stuff, like the HMV poll of 600,000 Brits in 1999 that placed Robbie Williams seventh – one place higher than Mozart – among the most influential musicians of the previous millennium. But in time the enduring memories of this England one-day side will be the first album, not the title defence that has unspooled like a faulty cassette tape these past seven weeks.
Some may cough about boundary countback, point to a freak deflection off the bat of Ben Stokes, or Trent Boult backpedalling on to the rope during the mindbending denouement at Lord’s in 2019. But as rival teams have acknowledged, over a four-year period leading up to that day England moved the needle in the 50-over format, redefining all manner of batting metrics and records.
Even post Eoin Morgan (and Trevor Bayliss), the nucleus has been similar four years on, albeit with the eight survivors seldom playing as one during the interim due to fixture pileup and thus able to reinvent themselves. Having climbed the charts, it looks like inspiration possibly waned and perspiration could not make up for the shortfall.
There could yet be a gilded epilogue. The T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and USA next June is a second title to defend and hopefully lessons have been learned, even if their aura has taken a massive hit. But, as Dawid Malan put it before England trained under lights in this giant cricketing colosseum, a “total overhaul” of the ODI setup would be fair enough.
As such, with a squad for the Caribbean tour in December incoming, Malan said it is not a stretch to suggest a number will play their final ODI on Saturday (beyond David Willey, retirement already flagged). Stokes has the Test project, while Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes could be moved on from 50-over cricket, regardless of new contracts. There also seems little value in Mark Wood’s remaining rockets being fired in this format.
On the flipside, some experience has to be retained or a rookie side will be left exposed. There is a case to say Adil Rashid, even at 35, should stay on to mentor his fellow leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed. As another white-ball specialist, Jos Buttler should not be discarded, even if a decision over the ODI captaincy remains. After two half-centuries, Joe Root has also had a particularly poor tournament by his standards. But even if he does not make the 2027 World Cup, he has so much to offer players such as Harry Brook, who should.
Malan makes for an interesting one. Not part of the 2015-2019 project at all, he was the only outsider to force his way in through a weight of runs. While others have struggled in India, the left-hander has averaged 46.6 at a strike-rate of 103. But then it could easily be, aged 36, he gets a repeat of the 2021-22 Ashes, when he stood up while the series was live yet was then culled in the “red-ball reset”.
“The Ashes one hurt, you know. Maybe that’s prepared me for what happens here,” said Malan, before being asked whether the 50-over World Cup in 2027 was even a remote possibility. “No chance. There’s no way I’m running around at 40 years old. Tomorrow could be the last game of cricket for England for me and it could still be the start of another journey. Who knows? We’ll only find out when the dust settles.
“For the T20 side, I think a [total overhaul] might be an overreaction but for 50-over cricket … probably not. If tomorrow is the last one [for me] then I’ll look back with fondness on the performances I’ve put in. To be able to break into this team and stay in this team is an incredibly proud moment for myself.”
Pakistan’s lurching campaign is all but certain to end in a near-miss, hopes of a belting semi-final with India at this ground – shared by pretty much everyone outside New Zealand, not least the broadcasters – hinging on batting first and winning by at least 287 runs. Bowl first and the scenario enters the realms of outright fantasy.
Probable teams
England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (capt/wkt), Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wkt), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim, Haris Rauf
For England, sitting in seventh after victory against the Netherlands, it would take a crushing defeat and resulting net run-rate swing, plus wins for Bangladesh against Australia on Saturday and the Netherlands against India on Sunday, to finish outside the top eight and fail to qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Needless to say this is still well below expectations, the kind of campaign that will see the band broken up. But these guys did produce some pretty influential music back in the day.
