Former captain Nasser Hussain said for quite some time England’s white-ball game was “way off where it was” under Eoin Morgan and Trevor Bayliss, who led the side to the 2019 Men’s ODI World Cup triumph on home soil. After losing the T20I series to India 4-1, England suffered a four-wicket defeat to the same opposition and are 1-0 behind in the three-match ODI series. The Jos Buttler-led side need to win the remaining matches in Cuttack and Ahmedabad if they are to sign off from the India tour on a high. England will then be taking part in the Champions Trophy happening from February 19 to March 9, where they are placed in Group B alongside Afghanistan, Australia, and South Africa in the eight-team 50-over competition.
“It’s followed similar paths, hasn’t it? Most of the games, even the T20s, have been periods where they’ve been in the game and then a clumsy mistake like that (around Phil Salt’s run-out in the first ODI). Then spin comes on, Ravindra Jadeja bowls beautifully.
“The T20s they lost and they lost a lot of those games for spin as well. So India, obviously white ball in that final in the World Cup in Ahmedabad, they won the T20 World Cup, so they’re a formidable white-ball side. And also the depth to Indian cricket – Abhishek Sharma in those T20s – wow, what a player.
“Shubman Gill comes back in. Virat Kohli doesn’t play. Whoever they pick, they are a wonderful side. But England’s white-ball cricket for quite some time now has been way off (from) where it was under Morgan and Bayliss. So I do think it’s a very important few months ahead,” said Hussain on Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.
England’s ability to bat against India’s spinners has come under the scanner, and Hussain felt they need to figure out the art of playing for a long time in the 50-over format. “You wouldn’t say they’ve been getting out to big spin. It’s not like day four of a Test match in Mumbai or something. It has been through not picking spin.
“I know Harry Brook has really struggled, hasn’t he? So I think it’s the picking of spin and that aggressive nature really. This England side, whenever they lose, the thing that’s always asked – are they going too aggressive? Now they’ve got Root in there just to play that anchor role. He didn’t quite bat long enough (in the first ODI).
“But I think it’s that aggressive nature. Eoin used to say that ’50 overs isn’t a long time, just go hard for every delivery and see where you get to’. So maybe that’s McCullum’s point, we’ve got to take a bit of pain to work out the tempo.
“And we’ve both said, they don’t play that much 50-over cricket. They haven’t played that much since the last World Cup and they don’t play domestically 50-over cricket. So it is working out how long that batting innings is and how hard to go and when not to go quite so hard,” he concluded.
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