England go with pragmatism over consistency

England selection announcements have been rather predictable in recent years, but the squad today announced for the tour of India was eagerly awaited, and did not disappoint with a number of surprises.

The omission of Kevin Pietersen grabbed the headlines, but in reality it appears that the issues between Pietersen, his England teammates and the team management are some distance from being resolved. It is believed that some members of the team are opposed to his potential return, and it has also been reported that Pietersen himself still feels that he has been treated unfairly. Perhaps the issue would be solved most easily were the ball to be put firmly in Pietersen’s court - allow him to apologise properly to everybody, including the fans, and drop his supposed demands for an investigation into the alleged involvement of England players in a parody Twitter account, before kissing and making up.

The selection of an opener to replace the retired Andrew Strauss must have been a close call, and in the end it has been decided to take both young Yorkshire opener Joe Root and Somerset’s Nick Compton.

Root is an impressive character, and clearly an extremely talented cricketer. But there must be a worry that this is a year too early for him. 2012 was the first season in which he has been a heavy scorer for his county, and his runs came in Division Two of the Championship. It could be argued that, in the absence of both Strauss and Pietersen, England need to find a Michael Hussey instead  - a batsman who can come into international cricket late, but hit the ground running straight away. Compton, who, after struggling to live up to the family name early in his career has been the best England-available batsman in Division One for the last two seasons, would be the prime candidate to offer that. Michael Carberry, who played a Test in Bangladesh in 2010, can count himself unlucky to have missed out, but in the end simply didn’t bang the door down enough this season. Root and Compton will surely both get opportunities in the warm-up matches, and it might eventually be those that determine who walks out with Alastair Cook at Ahmedabad.

The middle order places are also intriguing. Eoin Morgan has struggled for runs in first-class cricket, and did nothing of note in the small number of Championship games he played for Middlesex this year. However, England like what they see in one-day cricket and he is the closest they can get to an X-Factor player who can turn a game on its head in the absence of Pietersen. Although the tour of the UAE early this year would suggest the contrary, Morgan has a game which should be well suited to Asian conditions. He hits spin well and plays off the front foot. There may, however, still be questions about how he’ll cope defensively against Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha.

The inclusion of Morgan would appear to have come at the expense of two men who featured in the Test series against South Africa.

Ravi Bopara’s form crisis has been well documented, but he’s played only one Test in 2012, and, having been earmarked for a place this year before injury and then personal issues struck, is arguably due a proper shot at the five-day game. Nevertheless, in his current state of mind it would be a major risk to take him in a squad devoid of senior batsmen.

James Taylor can arguably count himself more hard done by. The Nottinghamshire batsman has long been earmarked as a future Test star and didn’t disgrace himself on debut at Headingley, where his supporting innings of 34 was praised. His omission flies in the face of England’s much vaunted consistency of selection, but perhaps he has been an unlucky victim of KP-gate and the retirement of Strauss - with Jonny Bairstow demanding a place, and Root picked at the top of the order, England have two young batsmen in the squad and a third would perhaps be a risk too far.

Geoff Miller and his fellow selectors are right to pick five seamers and three spinners. Its hard to argue with the five pace options on the plane, whilst it is a relief to see that rumours of Monty Panesar’s exclusion have proved unfounded. But the selection of Samit Patel is baffling. Patel failed to register a Championship hundred this summer, took only 14 wickets at 38 and is hardly Jonty Rhodes in the field. Yet it would appear that England still fancy him at number seven to supposedly balance the side in Asian conditions - a role he failed to fulfill satisfactorily in Sri Lanka. Leaving out Patel would have opened up a place for James Tredwell, who never disappoints for England, and could have come in handy should Swann have to pull out injured before a match where England want to play two spinners.

Looking forward to the series itself, India will start as favourites but the visitors should not be written off. England proved themselves to be a vastly superior side in England last summer and, whilst the sub-continent presents a different set of challenges, the turnaround should not be as stark as to make India nailed on victors. The first line of attack should be with the quick men - with the possible exception of an occasional pitch offering excessive turn Anderson, Broad and Finn should all play as India’s batsmen play spin exceptionally well. If the bowlers do their job, as they did last winter, then a lot will depend on the batsmen. The line-up is arguably the most inexperienced taken on tour since the visit to South Africa at the turn of the century. Nevertheless, India can be a good place to start for inexperienced batsmen and in Cook, Trott, Bell and not forgetting Matt Prior, we still have four of the best in the world.

Why England have cracked the one-day code

England’s recent improvement in one-day cricket has been met with surprise by some of those who have watched the team’s often dismal showings in the 50-over format of the game. But it shouldn’t be the slightest bit surprising. In Andy Flower the team are directed by a man who genuinely achieves almost everything he sets out to achieve. His CV, both in cricket and the wider world, is already incredible - number one batsman in the world whilst ‘keeping and playing for Zimbabwe, coach of the number one Test team in the world, and who can forget that black armband protest at the 2003 World Cup. And next on the checklist must be one-day success with England, which, with the regulations as they currently are, requires the type of dedicated planning that Flower and his backroom staff specialise in.

One area of the one-day game which England have finally understood is the top of the batting order. For most of one-day cricket’s history it goes without saying that the most successful teams have had a strong top order. For evidence of that look at Hayden, Gilchrist and Mark Waugh for Australia during their golden period of three consecutive World Cup triumphs; Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gambhir also fit the bill, and there can have been few more daunting top threes than Greenidge, Haynes and I.V.A. Richards. The common theme is that, however aggressive, all nine of those mentioned were or are hugely successful Test players. The need for a solid technique has become ever more important with the introduction of a second new white ball last October. Cook, Bell and Trott certainly have that attribute and, with 15 overs of powerplay in the first 20, the run rate takes care of itself when batsmen of their quality are at the crease. Once the new balls are seen off regular hundreds are the inevitable consequence, as lesser bowlers are brought on, the batsmen become set and runs continue to flow. A lack of hundreds has been a notable issue for England’s ODI side in the past - Marcus Trescothick, with 12, remains England’s leading centurion, whilst six players from other countries have 20 or more and Sachin Tendulkar 49. But with six in the last six matches the problem finally seems to have been solved. They have worked out that hundreds come more regularly from quality players, rather than supposed ‘dashers’ like Craig Kieswetter and Luke Wright that will make quick 30s, but rarely bring up three figures.

The advent of Twenty20 has seen teams realise that almost anything is possible over a 15 over period of batting. Combined with the batting powerplay, usually taken from overs 36-40, this allows teams to go at upwards of nine runs per over in the last 15. The key to making best use of this is to have numbers 5, 6 and 7 at the crease rather than 9, 10 and 11. Therefore, keeping wickets in hand as England’s top three have done in the last two series becomes key to setting a platform for the likes of Eoin Morgan, Craig Kieswetter and Tim Bresnan to enjoy themselves down the order. 

It is not only in the batting department that England have benefited from the new regulations. The two new balls play perfectly into the hands of Test match bowlers like James Anderson, who ran rings around Lendl Simmons with the moving ball on Tuesday, Stuart Broad, and Tim Bresnan. In English conditions this makes is possible to expose the middle order quickly, whilst in the sub-continent England should be well placed to take best advantage of any swing which is available. The other thing which England do well is to play five specialist bowlers. This ensures that there is no let up for the batsmen, meaning that they have to target bowlers that they might not when all-rounders and part-timers are used to make up the overs.

Like in Test cricket, conquering the sub-continent remains a major challenge. The series in India last winter was lost 5-0, whilst the matches against Pakistan in the UAE were not played on typically Asian surfaces. However, there is no reason why this side won’t make a success of the sub-continent when they next visit for ODIs in January. Scores of 300+ are easily attainable with this batting line-up, and Ajmal, Afridi and Hafeez were well combated in the latter part of that UAE tour. Meanwhile, we have an excellent spin attack of our own in Graeme Swann, who despite recent inconsistency remains a very difficult customer, and Samit Patel, who is an under-rated performer with the ball in the 50-over game. Some observers might suggest that Cook, Bell and Trott are too pedestrian a top three for the sub-continent. But Cook and Bell, and to a lesser extent Trott, in fact score their runs at a good rate - Cook’s strike rate since returning as captain last year is almost identical to Kieswetter’s. And the impact of the batting powerplay means that it is unnecessary to score at 6 an over throughout the innings.

England have not won a 50-over World Cup, and it surely won’t be long until the media start jumping on the planning for 2015 bandwagon. But the best way of reversing their recent World Cup disappointments is to create a one-day team, which like the Test team, becomes regarded as amongst the very best in the world. To do that they need to ensure that they keep winning, by selecting a team which will win now rather than in three years time. If that happens the team will, again like the Test team, start to largely pick itself come the World Cup and prevent the panic decision making which has blighted the last five tournaments. 

I’ll finish with a word of warning. England thought they had cracked the one-day code two years ago, when a series of victories, including the run to the 2010 World Twenty20 title, created widespread optimism. But performances soon tailed off on that occasion. This time they need to ensure that success is maintained, and cherished almost as highly as Test victories.

Bell in last chance saloon as opening conundrum re-awakens itself

Since Nick Knight’s retirement from international cricket at the end of the 2003 World Cup, bringing to an end a successful alliance with fellow left-hander Marcus Trescothick, England have tried a remarkable 35 different pairings at the top of the one-day international batting order. In the nine years that have passed, England have played 203 One-day Internationals but, remarkably, the first option which was tried after Knight’s retirement - Trescothick and Vikram Solanki - remains the partnership that has survived the instinct to change for the longest. Although that itself lasted a mere 20 matches. 

The pair that will face the two new balls tomorrow have only opened together on one previous occasion, and have been put together somewhat reluctantly as the England team strive to get over the disappointment of Kevin Pietersen’s retirement from limited overs international cricket - disappointment which has been compounded by the fact that Alastair Cook and Pietersen each struck two centuries, and looked like being England's opening pair for years to come in the UAE. 

Nevertheless, Ian Bell’s game, based on timing the ball and scoring a high proportion of runs in boundaries should be ideally suited to the role, in which Pietersen’s success, and that of others around the world including Mahela Jayawardene and Hashim Amla, has proved that proper batsmen are preferable to pinch-hitters. Bell’s ODI career to date has been overwhelmingly disappointing, with a single century from 108 games and an average below 35. But his natural talent, and the fact that he has only just hit 30 years of age, suggests that he is the contender most likely to score the weight of runs that KP would have, and thus that he deserves one last shot. 

Cook, on the other hand, can now consider himself to be assured of his one-day place for the first time in his career. The captain has consistently demonstrated that he can adapt his game to the 50-over format in the last year, and his strike rate in the UAE was not far off that of Pietersen, whilst himself striking two hundreds.

Some sections of the media are likely to suggest that Cook, Bell and Trott bat too slowly to make up an ODI top three. But they are wrong on two counts. Firstly, it is a misconception that Cook and Trott in particular are purely ‘plodders’ - a term with negative connotations in this form of the game. Since returning to the side as captain a year ago Cook’s strike rate is almost identical to the supposed ‘dasher’ Craig Kieswetter. Meanwhile, Trott’s average is the seventh best of anyone in ODI history, and comfortably the highest by an Englishman. He may not have the gears to go through that others have, but he sets an invaluable solid base.

The other mistake which is commonly made is to believe that getting off to a quick start is essential to ODI success. This may have become the case for a while some years ago, but the introduction of two new balls and the combined effects of Twenty20 and batting powerplays mean that it has again become preferable to set a strong platform. Going too hard at the top can easily result in fatal collapses, whilst if wickets remain in hand for the last 15 overs just about anything is now possible. Therefore, England are right in assigning power-based cricketers like Jonny Bairstow and Eoin Morgan the role of finisher rather than opener.

Even with the disruption of the latest episode of KP-gate, England should start this particular three match series as favourites. The visiting West Indians have Chris Gayle back in their ranks for the first time in over a year, and also posess an array of exciting, if inconsistent all-rounders. But in swinging conditions it is difficult to see them making big totals against a selection of Anderson, Broad, Finn, Dernbach and Bresnan. The hosts definitely have the upper hand in the bowling department, where the forementioned seamers will be joined by Graeme Swann. West Indies will miss Kemar Roach badly, and will have to pray that Sunil Narine replicates his recent limited overs form rather than his Test Match form.

Just as the opening positions have been passed around by England’s 50 over team, the wicket-keeping gloves have also become the subject of pass-the-parcel in recent years. Kieswetter is the current incumbant, and is likely to start the series with the gloves and batting at six. However, the temptation to hand the gloves to Bairstow could quickly become stronger if Kieswetter fails to find his form. Bairstow has had a tough Test baptism, and could well be on the sidelines at the start of the ODIs. But team management will want him to feature at some point, and he will be keen to replicate his eye-catching debut from the tail end of last summer. 

England’s ODI form has been a mixed bag over the last 12 months. But they won their last series, in the UAE, 4-0, and will feel that another whitewash is possible on home soil. Other than the obvious change at the top the selection has been consistent with that particular series. However, should Bell fail to perform here the onus may be on the selectors to come up with a 36th opening pair in less than a decade.


Those 35 opening partnerships since 2003 in full:

Opening partnership	ODIs together since the 2003 World Cup
Marcus Trescothick and Vikram Solanki	20
Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss	17
Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan	9
Vikram Solanki and Ian Bell	3
Ian Bell and Matt Prior	8
Marcus Trescothick and Geraint Jones	7
Marcus Trescothick and Matt Prior	5
Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior	11
Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell	6
Marcus Trescothick and Ed Joyce	1
Marcus Trescothick and Alastair Cook	2
Andrew Strauss and Ed Joyce	2
Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan	3
Andrew Strauss and Mal Loye	3
Ed Joyce and Mal Loye	4
Ed Joyce and Michael Vaughan	6
Ian Bell and Michael Vaughan	3
Alastair Cook and Matt Prior	9
Matt Prior and Luke Wright	1
Alastair Cook and Phil Mustard	10
Ian Bell and Luke Wright	4
Ian Bell and Alastair Cook	1
Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara	2
Ravi Bopara and Alastair Cook	1
Andrew Strauss and Ravi Bopara	10
Ravi Bopara and Joe Denly	1
Andrew Strauss and Joe Denly	8
Jonathan Trott and Andrew Strauss	2
Andrew Strauss and Luke Wright	1
Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter	18
Andrew Strauss and Craig Kieswetter	9
Andrew Strauss and Steve Davies	7
Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen	4
Jonathan Trott and Craig Kieswetter	1
Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen	4