The big picture – familiar nemesis awaits faltering England
Six matches lost, 42 matches left… It is too early to make any sweeping decisions about the fate of the 2023 World Cup. However, when England’s trained cricketers are heading for the highest peak of the tournament in Dharamsala, they are doing so with obvious reason to doubt their readiness to scale the heights they so achieved on home soil four years ago. Lived memorably.
The wider concern for England is whether such a warning call should be necessary at all. Given the brief nature of their tournament build-up, their early performances displayed a degree of rudimentary form, but apart from that their eleven lacked clarity. Once it became clear that England’s batting had failed to live up to its side of the bargain – and ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data revealed that the most aggressive line-up in ODI history had scored only 17% of the balls were attacked. – The bowlers (all World Cup winners) were largely terrified, giving up pretending they could defend a low score of 282, and instead succumbing to aggressive desperation.
At which point, enter a familiar World Cup foe. Bangladesh can hardly claim the foothills of the Himalayas as “home” conditions, but dispatching Afghanistan at the same venue on Saturday would be a satisfactory way to establish their credentials as one of the five Asian teams competing in this tournament. Was the means. And, as if England wouldn’t already be wary, his memories of the World Cup from Chittagong in 2011 and, famously, Adelaide in 2015 – the last two occasions when Bangladesh had bested his delusional campaigners – have haunted his sporting mind. Should have been put on red alert.
There may be as many as four survivors on each side of that 2015 encounter, which was the basis for England’s rebuilding towards their glorious liberation four years later. For Bangladesh, Mahmudullah’s brilliant century set the team up in the league with 89 off Mushfiqur Rahim’s 77, while Taskin Ahmed sealed the deal by dismissing Buttler, after Shakib Al Hasan usually bowled first after ten overs. Since then the safety-first situation had calmed down. Run-chase. For England, Moeen Ali, Joe Root and Chris Woakes play the stalwarts, all of whom will undoubtedly have their own takeaways from an extremely humiliating incident.
However, there is one recent World Cup contest that England might like to take back to – from Cardiff in 2019, when England faced Bangladesh in their second league stage game after losing to Pakistan. Then, they barely blinked to win by 106 runs, thanks particularly to the now-absent Jason Roy, whose brilliant 153 epitomized the threat-rushing approach that then Eoin Morgan and now Buttler adore. . The best means to achieve the glory of England. However, with nine wins and 11 losses in the last 15 months of ODI action, England are no longer sure what to do once they walk into that burning building.
Apparently, conditions in Dharamshala should favor a return to the English style. The combination of tight dimensions and high altitude should invite England’s heavy artillery to show their full strength – and they certainly didn’t stand on any ceremony in a perfunctory warm-up against Bangladesh in Guwahati last week, When they were romancing during a rain-shortened run-chase. 77 balls remained unused.
That’s not the only thing about England’s campaign so far that hasn’t been ideal. As Bangladesh have shown before on this stage, they are a tough team when your mind is not completely calm at times.
form guide
bangladesh WLLWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
England LWWWW
In the spotlight – Liam Livingstone and Mehdi Hassan Miraj
In the continued absence of Ben Stokes, and with Moeen likely to make way for an additional fast bowler, the spotlight has grown wider. liam livingstone As the all-round pivot of this England team. His clever legspin/offspin offering provides a difference that sets him apart, but with so much focus on England’s batting right now, it is this aspect of his game that he needs to step up.
Despite a brilliant inning of 95 not out in the recent home series against New Zealand, Livingstone’s overall batting form has deteriorated over the past few months. In his final three matches of the English summer, he hit one six and three fours in a total of 96 balls. Then in the tournament opener in Ahmedabad last week, he was blamed for England’s collapse after being dismissed for 20 off 22 balls. The impression that Livingstone has repeatedly given is of a man who is too keen to hit the ball out of the park, and has not concentrated enough on maintaining his shape and channeling his undoubted power. You could say it’s no different to the England team as a whole.
If we talk about spin bowling all-rounders mehdi hassan merazHis performance against Afghanistan was everything his team could possibly have expected. In his primary role, he took 3 for 25, including a brilliant dipping offbreak of Hashmatullah Shahidi that led him to hack a loose one at mid-on, leaving Afghanistan at 8 for 42 from 13 overs. Opened for.
Then, after being sent in to bat at No. 3 following the early run-out of Tanzeed Hasan, Mehdi followed up his century against the same opponents in last month’s Asia Cup, scoring 57 off 73 balls. Pursued an uninterrupted target. His composure as a batsman is no secret to anyone who witnessed his series-winning heroics against India in Mirpur last year, which included a century from No. 8, despite the England team losing at least six Players will remember him from his Test debut in his teens. In 2016, when his 12 wickets in Mirpur ensured another famous win. This shows that Bangladesh are full of players who have the skill and experience to win on any given day.
Team News – Stokes out, England considering additional fast bowler
It seems almost certain to be missing for the second match for Stokes, who has been struggling with a hip flexor injury since arriving in India. Reece Topley is in line for his first appearance in the tournament, potentially as Moeen’s replacement in the reinforcement of England’s seam-bowling stock, although another rotation of his quicks is not out of the question after his tremendous performance against New Zealand. Is. ,
England (Possible): 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Dawid Malan, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (c & wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Mark Wood, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Reece Topley.
There is no reason for Bangladesh to change a winning team, although offspinner Mahedi Hasan looked lively in the nets on the eve of the match, and could be considered ahead of Mahmudullah – the hero of the 2015 takedown – who scored a century against Afghanistan. Bowled a single over and was done. not bat.
bangladesh (Possible): 1 Tanjeed Hasan, 2 Liton Das, 3 Nazmul Hussain Shanto, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (captain), 5 Tauheed Hridoy, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 7 Mehdi Hasan Miraj, 8 Mahmudullah/Mahedi Hasan, 9 Taskin Ahmed , 10 Shoriful Islam, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
pitch and conditions
The weather in Ahmedabad is cooler than before, although not by much. A fresh pitch has been prepared for this second match, two strips from the surface that had proved difficult to score runs on in the Afghanistan vs Bangladesh game, and seam bowlers have flourished here before, four years from Tim Bresnan in 2013. After Suranga till Lakmal. , However, it is the outfield that has been the focus of the pre-match build-up, with the sand-based surface causing Mujeeb Ur Rahman to awkwardly flick his knee while slipping to stop Shakib’s boundary. The heavy nature of the surface can also reduce ground stroke returns.
Statistics and General Knowledge
Citation
“In my own opinion, I think it’s bad. I think whenever you’re talking about careful diving, or maybe being careful when fielding, it’s all of those things. Goes against what you want as a team.”
jos buttler Unhappy with the condition of the outfield in Dharamshala
“We didn’t expect such a wicket in Dharamsala, but what we found was that there was turn in our first two or three overs. The ball was a bit stagnant.”
mehdi hassan merazBangladesh’s match-winning spinner against Afghanistan admitted that the amount of turn in that contest had taken the team by surprise.
Andrew Miller is the UK editor for ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket