When the schedule for this Cricket World Cup was belatedly announced, then finalised barely eight weeks out, England had reason to feel hard done by.
While some countries were blessed with multiple instances of back-to-back games at the same venue, every one of the defending champions’ nine matches were to be played as flying visits, with more than 6,000 miles of air travel across eight different cities hardly what an ageing squad required.
But, having watched Australia cement their status as this World Cup’s early crisis team after slipping to a second successive defeat on Thursday, Jos Buttler’s men may have come to regard the programme in a more forgiving light.
Pat Cummins’s side may well have already come up against its two best sides: spun out by the host nation, India; then mauled by a South African team who have started in purring form.
Though the manner of both defeats would dent even the most ardent Aussie, neither result would be considered an aberration were it not for its proximity to the other, which leaves the five-time winners almost no margin for error, with seven matches still to play.
Had the cards been dealt differently, England might have found themselves in a similar spot, but in need of a response after their thrashing by New Zealand, Bangladesh served up a half-volley that was gratefully dispatched.
Beat Afghanistan in Delhi on Sunday, and by the end of a weekend in which India’s crunch meeting with Pakistan is by some margin the headline act, the damage will have been quietly repaired.
The story of Afghanistan’s cricketing rise is an extraordinary tale of underdog success, and at each ICC event they tend to arrive looking a better, more complete side than left the last, this time with the notable upgrade of two exciting 21-year-old openers in Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran.
So far, though, that progress has not transpired into the threat leading nations have been warned to fear: the last 50-over World Cup brought nine defeats from nine matches and across the two most recent T20 editions, Afghanistan’s only victories have come against Namibia and Scotland.
So far, Hashmatullah Shahidi and his side have been well beaten by Bangladesh in a match they must have earmarked as winnable and then, having posted a competitive 272 against an excellent Indian attack, saw the runs knocked off by Rohit Sharma with 15 overs to spare.
The latter contest was played at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on a surface that will have had England’s batters licking their lips, just as South Africa’s were when they hammered the World Cup’s highest score, 428, against Sri Lanka on the same ground last week.
The win over Bangladesh did little to answer nagging questions over the potency of England’s seam attack, save to establish that Reece Topley must be part of it, but should a similarly true wicket be delivered on Sunday, they will back their batting power to trump all.
