Have England paid the price of going a little too hard?
England have produced the worst record in the first five games by a team defending the World Cup title in the tournament’s history. With their only victory, albeit comfortable, a 137-run win over world no. 8 Bangladesh at Dharamsala. In 1992, Australia only won two of their opening five games and failed to make the semi-final stage, and in 1999 Sri Lanka suffered this identical record as holders.
England’s captain Jos Buttler during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 match between England and Sri Lanka(PTI)
In the five completed World Cups this century, the holders have won 23 out of 25 of their first five opening games, with the only defeats being Australia losing one match in 2011 and 2019. All defending champions since 1999 have breezed through to the knock-out stages of the World Cup finals.
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With cricketers in this modern era often having to pick and choose the cricket they play, whether it be a particular format they wish focus on, or simply due to workload, 50-over cricket is usually the format to fall by the wayside. The result is that Test cricket and T20 are creating specialists in the sport, and the 50 over games tends to be a bit of a make-up squad of these two sets of players meeting somewhere in the middle for international fixtures, with very little domestic cricket behind them to complement this. There are of course many current cricketers that have had huge success in their 50 over career, but these are the players that have been ubiquitous throughout the last decade as the game has been rapidly transitioning, rather than the younger players coming through.
The 2019 England World Cup squad had played more 50 over matches between them (international and domestic) in the 4 years leading to the World Cup finals than any of the other tournament dominating teams that year. In the period between the 2019 World Cup and the current campaign, the 2023 England squad have played fewer 50 over games between them than any other squad in the last 3 World Cups.
The main reason for the decrease in the number of 50 over matches the English players have played is their domestic programme. The World Cup winning squad in 2019 had played a total of 268 domestic matches of this format between them. In vast contrast the squad that flew to India last month to defend their title have played just 2 domestic 50 over games between them since the 2019 World Cup, both of which were Gus Atkinson who featured twice for Surrey in 2021. This is mainly due to the introduction of the Hundred in the English domestic calendar, which runs simultaneously with the county 50 over cup, resulting in the international players playing a format even shorter than T20 whilst their county teammates are honing their 50 over skills.
But the lack of 50 over cricket on its own doesn’t equate to the dismal start the England team have had in their first World Cup as holders. The squad is made up of highly talented and seasoned cricketers who are performing with bat and ball in Test and/or T20 and have huge experience adapting to different formats. Over half of the 2019 winning squad are featuring again this time, so apart from the lessened focus on 50 over cricket leading up to this World Cup, what else has changed? This is an open-ended question that will have a variety of answers from differing perspectives, but one element from an analytical stance is England’s batting approach to deliveries of a good length.
Big hitting, crowd thrilling batting, born from the explosion of global T20 tournaments has made its mark on the longer formats of the game; in the ‘Bazball’ era, England’s run rate on day 1 of a Test match would have been dizzying heights for any limited over team back in the 70s.
In ODIs, the average 1st innings score in this World Cup is currently 276 (for non-reduced over matches upto October 27), the highest of any World Cup tournament, and the game is considered all the better for it. However, in this mid-way format of cricket, a good length ball still requires an element of respect, and this is where England have perhaps gone a little too hard this time.
England’s batting order 1-7 have lost more wickets (11) to good length deliveries than all the other teams except Netherlands (12). South Africa have been the most watchful of balls in this zone, losing just two wickets in the tournament so far. In the Powerplay England have lost the most wickets (5) to this length of delivery.
England have been more aggressive to deliveries of a good length, especially in the Powerplay where they have played an attacking shot at 48% of deliveries (the highest of any of the 10 teams) and played defensively to just 25% of them (the lowest of any of the 10 teams). This aggressive plan has underpinned their elevated success in the recent era, and been a winning formula for them, but England have taken this positive outlook up a level this World Cup and attacked even more deliveries of a traditional good length.
In the 2019 World Cup England played an attacking shot at 37% of good length deliveries in the Powerplay; in the calendar year 2020 this increased to 43%, by 2022 they were aggressively playing at 45% and in this World Cup it is up to 48%.
So did England reach, but have now exceed the optimum level of positivity in the Powerplay for this longer white ball format, and are consequently failing to build a 50-over innings? Their last 3 matches would suggest this as they have been bowled out modestly inside 41, 22 and 34 overs respectively.
