unlike most other teams that have won the 50-over w.c, this english team is not very dominant. england could not beat an average australian side in post w.c. ashes in england. and now, they have been swept in all three formats in india. test series loss was expected given how poorly england play spin. but they should have made more of the opportunities they had in the shorter formats. the conditions for white-ball series were similar to that england play at home. odi cricket in england is now mostly played on dead pitches which offer very little to bowlers - similar to conditions in india. yet england came up short with their much talked about stars failing to deliver the knockout punch.
one unusual aspect of the english odi team is that so many of their batsmen are below avg players in the longer format. this is very different from performances of batsmen who were mainstays of great odi sides of the past. richards, haynes and greenidge dominated during 70s and 80s in both versions. from pak we had miandad, saeed anwer and inzi for a while. austrailian side from late 90s had a number of batsmen who could decimate opposing bowling in any format.
this english odi side does not have players of the caliber mentioned above. one exception is stokes who has produced dominant performances here and there but not has not been able to pull his team through often enough. test series in india was a good opportunity for him to put his name among the immortals but he proved to be disappointing. maybe he goes to australia and puts in a series defining performance which will see his name included with cricketing greats. others, i am not so sure with exception of root. batsmen who make their name on dead pitches rarely become clutch players. england lost to pak in champions trophy at home. they barely dragged themselves over the line during their w.c. win. and in india, they have fallen short on two occasions. these might be harmless bi-laterals but given india is due to tour in a few months, these victories could have given bit of an edge to england.
its also sad to see that spin has become so ineffective in odi format. hard to believe that even ashwin cannot succeed. in the past, likes of saqi, warne and kumble bought so much flavour to odi cricket. thanks too icc and their desire to cater to mindless indian bollywood watching audience, this fascinating aspect of the game seems to have been consigned to history.
