Seven months is an eternity in the mayflyesque lifecycle of a professional sportsperson, but that far out from October’s 50-over World Cup England’s preparations are almost done. After the completion of their ODI series against Bangladesh, their next match in the format is scheduled for just a few weeks before they head to India, and following the three T20s with which they conclude this tour the white-ball group will not meet up again until September.
This trip was originally scheduled for the autumn of 2021, but its eventual place in the calendar has proved far more useful. “This was our last opportunity to get together, and we’ve been exposed to the conditions that we want to be exposed to,” Matthew Mott, England’s white-ball coach, said. “If we’d come over here and had flat, belting wickets, it wouldn’t have been the same experience. We’ve had to work for everything and you can’t buy that. I mean, if we were asking to construct the perfect series, this is the perfect series for us.”
At the end of it, a certain amount has become clear. Of the 15-man squad he will eventually name for the World Cup, Mott says there are “seven or eight spots that you could probably lock in”. It is not hard to imagine which names are already inked in, though the only one Mott actually named was Jofra Archer, who has continued a gradual reintroduction to international cricket here. “He’s building and by the time we get to the Ashes and the World Cup, you can just see he’s ticking all the boxes to get back to his best,” said Mott.
Beyond individuals there are certain types of players that are desired: Mott’s ideal XI would contain, for most matches in India, “three spin options and a little bit of variety in that as well”. So Liam Livingstone joins Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali on the lock-in list if he returns to form and fitness, but either Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed or another spin-bowling all-rounder who makes a compelling case over the next six months is likely to be in the squad as back-up (Joe Root, who has not bowled at all in 89 of his 158 ODIs, including eight of his last nine in Asia, looks like an option of last resort).
Mott would also like “players capable of batting in the top six and bowling key overs”. This means the ODI-retired Ben Stokes, of course, but the search for alternatives explains Sam Curran’s audition at No 5 in Monday’s final game in Chattogram.
“I’m still in touch with him but the issue about whether he wants to play, we don’t need to know for a while,” Mott said of Stokes. “I’d say halfway through the summer, gauging on how he’s feeling physically and mentally, will be [when] we see whether he wants to put himself up for selection. And we’d welcome him back. If you’ve got a person who can bowl any over in the game and make big hundreds as well, every team would cry out for that. But the worst thing we could do is try to put pressure on him to make a decision early.”
Jos Buttler
Moeen Ali
Jason Roy
Jonny Bairstow
Joe Root
Dawid Malan
Harry Brook
Ben Stokes
Sam Curran
Liam Livingstone
Adil Rashid
Mark Wood
Jofra Archer
Chris Woakes
Will Jacks/David Willey
Among the batters, both Jason Roy and Dawid Malan have scored match-winning and reputation-enhancing centuries in Bangladesh, the former having apparently recovered from his annus horribilis in 2022 – not that Mott, despite dropping him from his T20 squad last year, ever seriously considered jettisoning him altogether.
“He averages 40 and strikes at over 100 [in ODIs] – it’s very hard to leave players like that out,” he said. “He will go up there as one of the greats. There is no doubt that he was under pressure, but not in our minds. The knock he played the other day, with the ball spinning, was a bit of a masterclass in how to play in these tough conditions. He is definitely right up there.”
Those two innings have informed the team’s template for the ideal performance in these conditions, demonstrated both by Malan’s contribution to victory in the low-scoring series opener in Dhaka, and by Monday’s defeat in Chattogram in a game of batting cameos.
“All the stats show in the subcontinent that teams that win, someone makes a big contribution and others bat around them,” Mott said. “It’s trying to adapt our batting style. It’s always been pretty free-flowing but there’s a realisation in certain conditions we just need to make sure someone really takes ownership. It’s getting that fine balance between aggression and playing smart games in different conditions. That’s the evolution – it’s finding a way.”
There is still time for fresh names to emerge with a spell of sustained success in franchise competitions – “We’ve got eyes everywhere at the moment,” says Mott – but there is already a surfeit of viable options. “I think it’s going to be a really difficult team to pick,” Mott said. “When you add four or five players back in that mix, there are going to be some really hard calls. There’s going to be some class players that miss out. All you can do [as a player] is present ready, fit, and then the rest is up to us I guess.”
