Liam Livingstone’s three mega sixes off one over from Kyle Jamieson provided the fireworks in an otherwise underwhelming England performance in the first one-day international against New Zealand at Cardiff on Friday – a crushing eight-wicket defeat with 26 balls to spare.
It was a good run-out for Livingstone, whose past year has been dogged by injury after damaging his ankle falling down a curb “trying to dodge a puddle” last August and then his right knee on Test debut in Rawalpindi.
“I’ve had two pretty big injuries,” he said before Sunday’s ODI at Southampton. “I’ve tried to play as much cricket as I can – I’ve not always been at full fitness – and I feel like I’m finally getting back to my best. Hopefully these games will help me get closer to that.
“Fifty-over cricket is a different animal on your body. T20 and the Hundred seems to go by in a flash, so 50-over cricket is a bit different. My legs are a lot more tired than they usually are. I just need to get back to being able to field for 50 overs and I think today is a big stepping stone for me.
“I’ve just been crying out for a bit of time in the middle … and as it went on I felt like I was moving better, I was seeing the ball better. Ultimately, I know when I’m at my best I can be a massive asset to this team. So, it’s just making sure over the next two to three weeks that hopefully when we go to India I’m back where I want to be.”
The four-match series against New Zealand is a final flexing of muscles before the two sides – the 2019 champions and the 2019 runners-up – meet in Ahmedabad on 5 October in the first game of the 2023 World Cup. There is some rustiness to shake off for both sides, because in the intervening years the format has developed a perhaps terminal limp. Between the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, England played 88 ODIs; between 2019 and 2023 the number will have more than halved to 43.
Before Friday, neither Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, the returning Ben Stokes nor Livingstone himself had played an ODI since July 2022. And the domestic One-Day Cup has become sidelined since the introduction of the Hundred, running alongside, but in its shadow.
Livingstone is one of those who has found himself being mentioned as possibly vulnerable to Harry Brook leapfrogging into the World Cup squad, but he seems phlegmatic.
“I’m taking it day by day. I spent six months in a gym, working on my ankle. I’m just enjoying being back playing. Every day you play for England is a very proud day, so I’m not looking too far ahead. Whatever happens in India happens in India and to wake up every morning and to be able to put an England shirt on is pretty special. And it would be stupid of me to look past that.”
Alongside Livingstone’s batting firepower, it is his abilities with the ball, to tweak it both ways, that give him added value to his captain, Jos Buttler. He got a good run out at Cardiff after Adil Rashid temporarily left the field with cramp – watched from the England balcony by Andrew Flintoff, seen in public for the first time since his accident during the filming of Top Gear . For Livingstone, though, his bowling is a work in progress.
“I feel like I [need to] work on my bowling to become a genuine all-rounder, there for when Jos needs me, or when he doesn’t need me … It doesn’t come as naturally to me as batting does but it was nice that the first few overs came out really well.
“It sounds weird but I’m in more of a development phase with my bowling – get a bit more on it, get a bit better at it, try and be more of a threat rather than just someone who just bowls really quick.
“I only made the change about three weeks ago so hopefully I’ll keep getting better and better. It’s a technical thing I’ve been working on to try and get a bit more shape on the ball. I was just fed up of being someone who bowls flat into the pitch and gets milked.”
