England
have set their sights on the pending Ashes series down-under, but the recent
One Day International series between their long-standing Aussie rivals and
hosts, India, who won 3-2, saw a rebirth for two great cricketing nations, who
have both suffered substantial losses over the past decade.
Gone are the days of Kumble in Kolkata or
Warne at The W.A.C.A, in a period which has seen England leapfrog all test
nations, culminating in their success as the number one test side on the fifth
day of an Oval test match against a dejected Indian outfit.
An innings and 242-run loss back in 2011
proved to be a low-point for India who had leaked 710 first-innings runs to
England. Further salt was rubbed in to the wounds when you consider the departure
of ‘The Wall’, Rahul Dravid, just four months later, as India lost one of its
greatest contributors to the game.
Whilst India seem to have lost players one
at a time, most recently the great Sachin Tendulkar, Australia lost a plethora
of talent in the blink of an eye, leaving them with the improbable task of
filling gaps left by Hayden, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath and Lee.
In truth, both nations still have a long
way to come before they will reach the glory of yesteryear, but the number of
breakthrough performances in the recent ODI series calls into question if we
are looking at the next Sachin?
Incredible displays from the likes of Rohit
Sharma, Virat Kohli, George Bailey and James Faulkner made this one of the
greatest ODI series’ of recent times, and not just because of how closely
fought each match was, but instead, for the confirmation that both Australia
and India have a strong future in the game after a spell of uncertainty.
Australian captain Bailey led from the
front with a massive 156 in the penultimate tie of the series and Rohit
Sharma’s double-century, only the third in the history of ODI cricket, sealed a
series win for India in the final match of a thrilling series.
Performances of this quality and
consistency are hard to sweep under the mat and if this kind of success edges
its way into the longest form of the game, there will be cause for concern in
the England camp.
England may still be ahead of these
countries in the test rankings, by a finite margin, but on the limited overs scene
they are slipping fast. Sitting third in the ODI ranking behind these two nations
and sixth in the T20 format, England are hardly in a position that strikes fear
on the global stage, with much to prove before they can be considered as brutal
as their competitors.
Retaining the Ashes remains the principal
concern for England, but a 2-1 win for the Aussie’s in this summer’s ODI series
was an early warning sign that England are a long way off the pace in other
formats of the game.
There are a number of reasons to be
optimistic if you are an England fan. Competition for places and squad rotation
has been a real strength of their recent displays.
This policy does however have a limited
number of implications. Are England’s players fit enough to sustain the
schedule they are faced with? Do we take some formats of the game as serious as
other nations? Or, quite simply, have England finally found a balance, not Gary,
but stability, which allows them to field such different squads, a luxury that
their competitors do not have.
Certainly, some might argue that a player
who is capable of transferring their game from red to white ball is more useful
and gives the team continuity, but there is no reason why England shouldn’t be
competing with their toughest rivals with such strength and depth at their
disposal.
By this time next year England will have
completed their trip to the Southern Hemisphere, as well as their hosting of
India for the 2014 summer, and these tasks will be decisive to the future of English
cricket.
After such time has passed maybe we will
have a more rounded opinion of just how far England have to go before they will
catch up, or perhaps, how far they have come to rise to such a challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment