Wednesday, 6 November 2013

England slipping on the international stage?




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.

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