The England men's cricket team had undertaken a white-ball tour of India followed by the 2025 Champions Trophy with high hopes. With a new all-format coach in Brandon McCullum, who promises to transform their white-ball team just like their Test outfit with an ultra-aggressive Bazball style of play, the team was upbeat when it landed in India for five T20I matches and three ODI clashes.
But with one ODI match remaining in the tour, England's build-up for the Champions Trophy looks in disarray as they have lost both the series -- suffering defeats in all but one match so far. They have lost the T20I series 1-4 and are now trailing 0-2 in the three-match ODI series, facing the prospect of a clean sweep by the hosts.
On Sunday, England rode on a 56-ball 65 by Ben Duckett, a 72-ball 69 by Joe Root, and a 32-ball 41 by Liam Livingstone to post 304 all out in 49.5 overs. The England team were in a position to post a score over 330 and could have reached a total of 350-plus but could not provide their innings the final push as skipper Jos Buttler (34 off 35) got out while trying to hit s big shot while Harry Brook (31 off 52 balls) took too many balls for his knock.
In reply, India rode on skipper Rohit Sharma's 32nd ODI century, a 90-ball 119, Shubman Gill's 52-ball 60, and vital contributions by Shreyas Iyer (44) and Axar Patel (41 not out) to reach 308/6 and win the match by four wickets. The hosts had won the first ODI too by the same margin.
The second successive defeat in the ODIs after the T20I series loss is a big setback for England and skipper Buttler admitted that they could not capitalise on their position and give the score the final push to surge beyong 330-340 runs.
We tried to get to 330-350, maybe that would have been defendable. We got into some nice position with the bat but we need a few of us to catch fire and push us to 350.
Buttler said they want to play better cricket for longer. He said they have been doing the right things in stages but not for consistently longer periods.
We want to play better really for longer, we have shown in stages that we are doing the right thing. When we have the momentum, we want to try and extend that longer..
Just keep taking steps in the right direction though results are not there but we need to keep going.
Before the start of the ODI series, Buttler had said that after lengthy discussions in the team meetings, they have identified an ultra-aggressive style of play as best suited to them.
However, Buttler admitted that they have not been able to properly execute their plans and therefore suffered at the hands of India on the tour so far.
The English batters have failed to negotiate the spin bowling, their previous mental blocks hampering their performance. Even though the pitches on which they have played so far have not offered sharp turn and bounce and only aided slight and slow turn, the England batters have not been able to dominate it.
After the T20I series, coach McCullum asked his batters to be bolder in their approach against spin bowling in white-ball cricket.
At times, we’ve been a touch tentative. We want to keep trying to apply pressure. I think our guys are really good players of spin. It’s disappointing to lose the series but Rome wasn’t built in a day. I think we’ve seen a pretty clear gameplan of how we want to play the game.
England will now be hoping that its batters come good in the final ODI at Ahmedabad before they move to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy.
With matches expected to be played on wickets that too could support spin a bit, both Buttler and McCullum are hoping that their batters don't get bogged down again and come up with a better performance.
