One loser and one very clear winner after the Australia v England ODI series

Alex Broun 20:58 28/01/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Two things are clear after the one-day series between Australia and England. Firstly England may indeed win the Cricket World Cup at home next year, secondly Australia definitely won’t.

    The England side is well-balanced and confident and even when they get into a difficult situation they have the resources and personnel to drag themselves out of it. They have a very strong batting line-up, a varied collection of bowlers and their captain, Eoin Morgan, is one of the coolest tacticians in world cricket.

    The match that tells us most about England’s strength was not the four matches they won, but the sole match they lost in Adelaide.

    In that game they slumped to 8-5 after inspired spells from Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins rolled out four England batsmen for bagels – Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Jos Buttler. Alex Hales also went for three as only one England batsman in the top six got into double figures.

    Any other team in world cricket would have held up the white flag, especially after already winning the series.

    Morgan’s England are made of sterner stuff with an extraordinary innings from Chris Woakes (78 from 82 balls) lifting the tourists to a competitive 196. They then took seven wickets before the Aussies limped over the line.

    Steve Smith has come down to earth with a thud in the ODI series

    Steve Smith has come down to earth with a thud in the ODI series

    Steve “the new Don” Smith, had a shocking series, averaging just 20.4 with a top score of 45. When pressure was applied, something he had very little of during the Ashes, the Australian captain began to look decidedly human.

    In comparison to England, Australia look to have a lopsided line-up dependent on a few key batsman (Aaron Finch, David Warner and Smith) and a very long tail which, unlike England, will not get the Aussies out of any tight spots.

    Mitchell Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood are all fine Test bowlers but they are not going to get many quick runs, except occasionally Starc, and as bowlers they look far less fierce on batter-friendly one-day wickets.

    England in comparison have no tail to speak of with Tom Curran, with an ODI average of 46, not a bad man to have at No10 – if he even gets a game.

    There is also one key fact which makes England the team to beat in 2019 – they did all the above without a certain Ben Stokes. Find a spot for him in this England line-up and it start to look very formidable indeed.

    Recommended