England begin ODI series with same aggressive approach
NAGPUR: Just as head coach Brendon McCullum dispersed the England team huddle at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur on a hot Wednesday afternoon, an already padded-up Harry Brook walked straight to the batting nets outside. Following him on his toes were Joe Root and Phil Salt.
For the next half hour or so, Brook, Salt and Root would bat at the nets facing throwdowns from a pacer and a couple of local spinners. Root, as usual, went about his methods, trying to get his feet forward, rocking back to shorter balls while working the ball around. Salt and Brook, meanwhile, were trying to take the leather off the ball, especially against Rehan Ahmed, who was bowling in one of the nets.
It is something they have continued to try with little success against Indian spinners in the recently concluded five-match T20I series. So much so that 29 of the 48 England wickets that fell in the series came from spinners. And, it is not just the number of wickets the spinners took but the way England capitulated every time to Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi. In all the five matches, the top four England batters have got out trying to take on the bowling. Slog sweep, reverse sweep, heave down the ground, you name a shot and England would have tried and failed.
However, England are not done trying. They know there is an issue with their execution but captain Jos Buttler is clear that the approach is not going to change. “No, we want to play in exactly the same way,” Buttler said when asked if there would be a change in approach after the T20I series loss. “We want to find ways to put pressure on the opposition with the bat. You have got to take wickets, I think it's crucial you see how if you let guys bat for a period of time, they can go on to do that. We'll be desperate to try and find ways of taking wickets. It's always about execution. Whatever plan you come up with, you've got to try and execute it well. We believe that's the best way for us to win games in cricket and get the best out of the players in our dressing room.”
If anything, the 2019 World Champions want to double down on their approach while staying on track for longer periods than they did during the T20s. They are aware that pitches in India for limited overs are among the best to bat on, but for some reason England have not been able to make the most of it – whether it was the T20I series or the 2023 ODI World Cup where they won just three of the nine games. In fact, Buttler wants his side to emulate the approach India have taken in ODIs – something England did better than anyone between 2015 and 2019 to win the home ODI World Cup – and do it successfully as well.
Buttler circled back to execution once again. “Whether you want to be aggressive, you want to be conservative, you want to be measured, you've still got to go out there and execute it and play it well,” Buttler said before adding, “If I look back at that World Cup, the two teams in the final were playing a really positive and aggressive brand of cricket. You may think of the way Travis Head took that final with the bats. You see it can be successful. This can be a great part of the world to play that fashion of cricket. I think obviously Rohit (Sharma) takes a lot of credit for the way he's come out and played himself as a captain and pushed India more towards that style of cricket. Absolutely, we want to be exactly the same. We believe that's the way that will give us the best chance of getting positive results.”
Wanting to do something and going out and being able to accomplish are two different things. England want to out-bat India. And they are preparing for it. After their nets, Buttler was the first to have a hit in the centre-wicket of the VCA Stadium. All he was trying to was pull, loft, and take down every throw from batting coach Marcus Trescothick. After Buttler, Brook followed, hitting the ball in the stands one after the another. Can they do the same against Indian bowlers come Thursday? Time will tell the answer.