Rob Key will fly out to India at the end of the week to select squads for the white-ball tour of the Caribbean next month but, chiefly, to decide whether Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott are the men to lead an England reboot.
As such, it makes the penultimate match of this dismal World Cup defence, against the Netherlands in Pune, about more than the consolation prize of a 2025 Champions Trophy spot or restoring a scintilla of pride. If Key, England’s director of men’s cricket, meets the touring party in Kolkata after a seventh defeat from eight, the status quo would look distinctly untenable.
