Cricket World Cup: Don’t rule out England just yet

England started this Cricket World Cup as favourites. For once confidence was as high as expectation. They were ranked number one in the world. The team was settled, rich in batting talent and now, with the inclusion of Jofra Archer and a fully-fit Mark Wood, had a formidable pace attack. Early matches went swimmingly, and, though the injury to Jason Roy was a blow, they were on course to cruise into the knock-out stages. Now after losing to Sri Lanka and Australia, their chances are hanging on a decidedly shoogly peg. They are almost certainly going to have to beat India and New Zealand to reach the semi-final, and while, in one sense, New Zealand’s loss to Pakistan might be encouraging, in another it certainly isn’t, for it means that Pakistan are now snapping at England’s heels.

So what’s gone wrong? Some on social media are quick to say “same old England” – folding, they imply, when the going gets tough. Others, more pertinently, point out that it’s one thing to run up huge scores on flat pitches, another to bat on slower ones when the pressure is on. There may be something in this. Pressure tells and England’s ground-fielding and catching have both been more fallible than has been usual.

That said, it’s the batting that has let them down. Instead of the galloping start they have been accustomed to getting from Jonny Bairstow and Roy while the fielding restrictions are in place, they have been losing early wickets, and in neither match have they recovered. This has been surprising as well as disappointing because neither Sri Lanka nor Australia set them a big target. In both matches there was agreement among pundits and on social media during the interval between innings that the game was in England’s hands. If it was, they let it drop.

I thought it a mistake to put the opposition in. Eoin Morgan has said that his team likes to chase. Perhaps they do. Perhaps this assertion masks a fear that their bowlers are not so good at defending a score. Putting the other side in when you have won the toss has of course become much more common in Test matches as well as in ODIs than it used to be. Few captains would now agree with the Edwardian skipper Archie McLaren who said you should sometimes think of fielding first when you win the toss and then decide against doing so. All the same the side chasing is under greater pressure, especially if it loses a couple of early wickets.

This was certainly how it looked against Australia. James Vince was dismissed straightaway, poor chap, and then Joe Root was out lbw to a lovely late inswinger from Mitchell Starc. England have so often been accustomed to building their innings around Root that his early departure is always disturbing. Still there was plenty of time to re-build – no scoreboard pressure. But then in quick success Morgan and Bairstow got themselves out playing ill-judged and indeed unnecessary shots to what are often called “nothing balls”. Subsequently, with Ben Stokes batting sensibly and responsibly, and recovery underway, Jos Buttler flicked a ball straight down the throat of deep square-leg, picking him out as surely as if employed to give him catching practice. So, with Moeen Ali in wretched form, it all depended on Stokes and he indeed continued to give England hope till Mitchell Starc yorked him with a real beauty.

It was a ball that might have got anyone out at any time – just as the one with which Starc dismissed Root was. Yet one couldn’t but think that both batsmen contributed to their dismissal. The English fashion for standing to receive with bat aloft like a baseball player makes the batsman peculiarly vulnerable to the yorker or full late-dipping inswinger. It was once quite usual for batsmen to curtail their backlift till they had got a good sight of the ball and had the opportunity to gauge the pace of the pitch.

Root is such a good batsman and as important to England now as his fellow Yorkshireman Len Hutton was when I was a boy that it seems presumptuous, even ridiculous, to criticise his technique from beyond the boundary or the sofa in front of the TV set. Nevertheless, I wonder if his present stance with his feet so far apart may not account for his tendency sometimes to be unbalanced when a ball dips into him late and either bowls him or has him lbw. No doubt there is some persuasive theoretical reason for adopting this stance, but compare it with how great batsmen of the past like Viv Richards and Gary Sobers stood, and the difference is very marked. I don’t recall either of them being unbalanced when a fast ball dipped into them.

Of course, England may still reach the semi-finals and go on to win the Cup. As Morgan has said, it’s in their hands. They are evidently capable of beating both India and New Zealand, but they will have to get their get their heads straight in order to do so. One would guess that opposing captains Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli will both choose to bat first if they win the toss, telling Eoin Morgan, as it were, “so your boys like chasing?  Well, let’s see how they do it.” On the evidence so far they are more comfortable setting a target than chasing one. There’s another reason why it makes sense to bat first. It usually seems to be easier to score heavily in the last five or six overs of an innings when you do this than when the pressure is more intense as you approach the end of the match. These matches against India and New Zealand should be nail-biting occasions. They may also be significant when we reach the Test series against Australia in just over a month now. Fail in the World Cup and England will start as underdogs – even though the personnel will be subtly different.