The Great England Comeback Of White-Ball Cricket

After limping out of the 2015 World Cup in the group stage, England embarked on one of the most radical and successful changes ever seen in their approach to short format cricket. The likes of Test supremos, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, were politely told that they should focus on red-ball cricket and England packed their white-ball sides with attacking batters, all capable of clearing the ropes.

And it worked. Okay, they could have done without Carlos Brathwaite smashing Ben Stokes for four successive sixes in the final over of the 2016 T20 World Cup Final, but England’s record of winning the 2019 World Cup, finishing as runners up in the 2016 T20 competition and reaching the semi-final in the 2021 T20 World Cup, was only challenged by New Zealand in the same period.

Fast forward to August 2022 and things have changed in the leadership of the side. Captain Eoin Morgan has retired from international cricket and Australian Matthew Mott is the new Head Coach. But the results have also gone south. This year alone, England have won five of nine ODIs but three of them were against the Netherlands. In T20Is, they have lost seven of 11 fixtures and have a win-loss ratio of 0.571 compared to their all-time record of 1.161.

With only 74 days to go until the start of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, new captain Jos Buttler has plenty of problems to solve:

England Batting Form

Across 154 T20I games, England have been bowled out in only 20 of them. However, six of these (30%) have happened this year. Of even more concern, the last three have seen England end their innings before the start of the 18th over and leaving 12+ balls unused. Opener Jason Roy has scored only one half-century in his last 14 innings in this format and he will be hoping for a strong campaign in the Men’s Hundred for Oval Invincibles to regain his form.

England Bowling Form

Although it was England’s batters who provided scoreboard pressure and dominated the headlines from 2015 onwards, there were plenty of top bowlers who were contributing to the success. Injuries have not been kind to England with Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes all crocked - none of them have appeared in a white ball game for the side this year. When you throw in Saqib Mahmood, who had been waiting patiently in the wings for an opportunity, also on the treatment bench, you can see that England are swimming in the pool of tier two and tier three players.

England Under Eoin Morgan

Eoin Morgan was a fantastic skipper for England with his calm and assured manner in the field giving his side an air of invincibility. However, his batting had been on the wane for many years and he was often accused of being a passenger when at the wicket.

Jos Buttler had been his deputy for many years and was the natural successor but is keeping wicket, opening the batting and captaining the side too much for the 31 year old? Four wins from 11 games since he was appointed skipper full time would indicate so! His average drops from 32.75 to 23.45 when leading the side in T20Is. Considering that he is England’s gun batter and was the leading run scorer in the IPL this year, this does not seem to be the best way to get the most runs on the board.

England are no strangers to heading down-under and returning empty-handed, but there has been so much investment in this side that it would be unacceptable in this circumstance. We think that Jos Buttler should be given time to turn the ship around, but also remember that Alastair Cook was replaced as ODI skipper only three months before the start of the 2015 World Cup. Unless England can get their injured pace bowlers back on the field in time for the competition, then the radical action of disposing of their captain could be their best option.