England badly missed Ben Stokes in Delhi. He was enticed out of retirement for just that kind of situation: a tight chase on a sultry night against spinners on a turning pitch.
Instead he was on the bench stroking his luxuriant beard and helpless while his team were in crisis. Now they need another Stokes miracle before this World Cup campaign goes up in smoke. Without him, they seem to have a batting line up that leaves it to each other to see them over the line.
With Stokes in the team, he inspires others. Stokes never thinks he is out on the canvas. He is always ready to beat the count and land a punch. Harry Brook complicated the recall by top scoring but England have six days to dwell over the balance of their team for a game against South Africa that falls into the must win category even this early on in the tournament.
Mumbai is a quick, bouncy pitch by Indian standards and South Africa boast the most powerful middle-lower order in the competition as well as an opener in Quinton de Kock with two hundreds already in the competition.
England are in trouble, their defence of the World Cup on the verge of falling apart after only three games. They miss Stokes terribly, but also the Jofra Archer of 2019 with the new ball, and Liam Plunkett in those middle overs. While we expect Stokes to play the Superman role, even he cannot make up for the mess the seam bowlers are making of things in India at the moment, Woakes with the new ball and Sam Curran with the older one struggling badly.
It is not panic stations just yet. They still have enough matches in the locker to turn it around but something is not right. Both defeats have been heavy and featured some sloppy cricket that recalls memories of World Cup performances in 2015 that we thought were over for England.
Woakes was magnificent in the Ashes but once again poor on overseas pitches. He is not swinging the new ball and has no control. His off cutter is easy to pick and his form has made it very hard for Buttler because Woakes was a ‘banker’, a bowler he would bake in for ten overs of tight lines and lengths. Curran is inconsistent too and nowhere near the same threat in T20 cricket, the longer format exposing him at the moment. With those two going for 87 in eight overs against Afghanistan, England did well to be only chasing 285 in Delhi.
South Africa rely on their lower order to do damage later on which means you need to bowl well and take wickets with the new ball to blunt their threat. England must make changes in Mumbai. They cannot risk two seamers bereft of confidence and form.
The New Zealand hammering punctured the aura around this England team and they look like a side that has forgotten how to play in this format, how to build innings and scrap for wins in difficult circumstances. The batsmen are timid, poking around and lacking the dominance and belief of four years ago. That World Cup campaign came off the rails a little later than this one, with a defeat by Sri Lanka at Headingley.
Then they had Jason Roy to slot back into the team once he had recovered from a hamstring injury and he made the difference, propelling them into the semi-finals. They now need Stokes to inject the antidote, although much earlier on in the group stage and with confidence lower. It is much harder to recover lost momentum on the road than when going home to their own beds most nights.
Credit to Afghanistan for a win in Delhi that belies the lack of money, facilities, resources at their disposal and the upheaval at home from political violence to the shattering earthquakes that have killed thousands in recent weeks.
Forget Ireland in 2011. This was worse. The defeat in Bangalore 12 years ago was freakish and required one man, Kevin O’Brien, playing the innings of a lifetime.
That was an England side with no pedigree in 50 overs cricket either at a time when they were mostly focussed on winning Test matches. This one is the first to hold both World Cup crowns at the same time and a squad chock full of IPL millionaires. Now they need one of them, Stokes, to dig them out of a huge hole.
There is one bit of good news for England: Australia are doing worse. They are bottom of the table.
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