“We knew coming into this tournament we were guessing a little bit.” – coach Matthew Mott
“Maybe the writing was on the wall and we just didn’t see it as players.” – Moeen Ali
“Now it’s the start of my golf tour.” – anonymous England player
Any of the above would be a fitting epitaph for perhaps the worst defence of any World Cup by any team in any sport.
How have an England group largely drawn from the players who won this tournament in 2019 imploded so spectacularly in India?
Nobody from within the camp, other than perhaps Moeen, has yet offered a credible answer.
This nightmare campaign will finally, mercifully be over after Saturday’s dead rubber against Pakistan in Kolkata, after which a team who landed in India as second favourites six weeks ago will fly home following nine tortuous group matches.
England’s fall from grace has been complex. There has been no single reason why they have failed – just many that have all added up to see the defending champions fall off a cliff. Here’s the inside story behind the team’s dire World Cup.
Bad communication
Things started to unravel from the moment national selector Luke Wright announced the squad for the New Zealand series in early September would be the 15 for the World Cup. It led to weeks of public debate about why Harry Brook, England’s best young batter in a generation, had been left out. Initially elbowed out of contention by Ben Stokes, who came out of ODI retirement to play in this tournament, Brook was eventually included after an England U-turn, with World Cup-winning opener Jason Roy discarded from the original squad instead. Roy, who had missed the entire New Zealand series with a back injury, was furious.
The gaffes from Wright, who was put up for media duties instead of Mott, didn’t end there. He stated fast bowler Jofra Archer, recovering from a chronic elbow injury, would be a “travelling reserve” in India, who might be fit for the end of the group stage. Archer wasn’t in India, apart from three days in Mumbai ahead of England’s fourth game of the tournament against South Africa. He was already on a flight home by the time England crashed to their record ODI defeat at the Wankhede Stadium.
While the Archer saga was baffling, Mott’s public admission after the defeat by Afghanistan that his players lacked confidence was troubling. The Australian also admitted his players had been “spooked” by their opening defeat by New Zealand. Three games into the tournament, these were statements that former captain Eoin Morgan, the king of positive messaging, would never have countenanced.
It’s no coincidence Morgan, who still has inside line into the dressing-room and is good friends with Buttler, soon started laying into England in his role as a pundit for Sky Sports. His claims that the squad was “definitely unsettled” and that “there’s something else going on” came after England announced their new round of central contracts two days before a crucial match against Sri Lanka in Bangalore.
The destabilising effect on the camp was illustrated when David Willey, the only player in the squad who didn’t land a deal, announced in the run-up to last Saturday’s match against Australia he was retiring from international cricket after the World Cup.
The final act of England’s PR disasterclass came earlier this week, when fielding coach Carl Hopkinson was asked to do his first press conference on the eve of the Netherlands match. It at least provided some gallows humour but was indicative of a camp where the leadership has been found wanting. Morgan accused Mott and Buttler of abdicating their responsibilities after Hopkinson was put up.
“At the moment, it is a sinking ship and you need people to take responsibility for their actions,” he said. Mott, whose authority has weakened the longer the tournament has gone on, is likely to keep his job. But chatter he has become a joke figure in the dressing-room remains.
Poor planning and preparation
It all started with a 38-hour journey from London to Guwahati that Jonny Bairstow branded “utter chaos”. England travelled to India’s far east for two warm-up matches, the first washed out against the hosts and the second a weather-reduced win against Bangladesh.
In the second of those, the players complained that their shirts – made by the Manchester-based company Castore – were too heavy and uncomfortable, especially when wet. Aston Villa’s players had expressed similar concerns about their Castore kit the previous week. England decided to wear the lighter replica shirts that are sold to fans during the tournament.
The last-minute change meant they had to hurriedly get names and numbers printed on the shirts in India, which is why the font sizes were mismatched for the first few games. A small matter perhaps, but it was indicative of a lack of planning and organisation. As was the fact England didn’t know about the new qualification criteria for the 2025 Champions Trophy until they were informed by travelling UK journalists during their sixth match of the tournament against India in Lucknow. Asked after that defeat when he had become aware his team had to finish in the top eight of the World Cup to reach the Champions Trophy, Mott replied: “About an hour-and-a-half ago.”
The fact the XI Mott and captain Jos Buttler selected for the opening game against New Zealand had never played together before was also eye opening. But poor planning is nothing new. Asked after England’s failed run chase that led to defeat in a weather-reduced match against Ireland at last year’s T20 World Cup in Melbourne, Brook admitted: “We didn’t realise it was going to rain as much.”
Muddled messaging
No wonder confidence was low after a run of six defeats in seven games. And the messaging from the players and coaches explains why.
Jonny Bairstow, speaking before the South Africa match, insisted it wasn’t possible to go hard from the start of innings in India despite that being a key tenet of the team’s success. He was contradicted in the following days by Buttler and Stokes.
Players knowing their exact roles was another key part of England’s success under Morgan. The clarity disappeared in a fog of confusion during this tournament. Mott also didn’t help when describing Test captain Stokes as the ODI team’s “spiritual leader”. It poured petrol onto the flames of murmurs that the power dynamic between Buttler and Stokes has been unhealthy and that the players, also confused by Mott’s lack of leadership, were unsure of who was in charge.
Confusion over selection
Muddled messaging was joined by muddled selection. They left out Reece Topley, who went on to become England’s best bowler before injury cut short his tournament, for the first match. Moeen, the vice-captain and a huge support to Buttler in the field, was then dropped.
For the match against South Africa, England’s battalion of all-rounders, an integral part of the formula that saw them win two World Cups, were left out entirely. It led one player to remark in private afterwards that the team was “shit”. With their tournament hopes gone, England then picked an XI entirely of over-30s for three straight matches – leaving out young players who would gain valuable experience for the future in Brook, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse.
Terrible decisions
Aside from poor selection, Buttler has won six tosses in a row but chosen wrongly in at least of four of those matches. The worst was the South Africa game, opting to field first in 37-degree heat with Mumbai’s smog and humidity making it feel like the players were “eating air”, according to Joe Root.
England’s bowlers were flogged and the worst thing is the decision to chase was based on T20 data. Even then the percentage of chasing teams winning at the Wankhede was only 55 per cent. England have been guilty of overthinking things at this World Cup. This was a classic case in point.
Injuries and travel
Stokes “popped” a tendon near his hip in the gym when rain washed out the Guwahati warm-up against India and his absence for the first three games overshadowed everything. Topley’s tournament was ended when he fractured a finger against South Africa. England have been unlucky with injuries and a brutal schedule that, other than India, meant they were the only team who had to travel after every game.
Distracted by outside noise
When i suggested too much golf might be a reason for England underperforming earlier in the tournament, Bairstow came out publicly to argue otherwise. As the quote at the top of this piece indicates, there is more than a little truth in the claim.
Other players have complained in private about media coverage of this shambolic campaign. Perhaps also rattled by the hand grenades lobbed into the camp by Morgan, I have never known an England team as distracted by how they are perceived by outside voices. It cannot have helped.
