It’s time to start getting a bit cross about all this
Peter Hayter suggests that England should stop trotting out the excuses and start to show some passion
Collared on the pitch while Indian supporters were still revelling in their fullthroated celebrations of India’s T20 series clinching win in Bengaluru, England coach Trevor Bayliss was asked what he had learnt about “this group of players”.
His reply was firm and without hesitation. “They are resilient,” he said.
Bearing in mind his side had just lost eight wickets for eight runs in 19 balls to collapse from 119-2 to 127 all out and end the final match of the three-month tour in humiliation and surrender, it was an interesting choice of words.
With Bayliss in charge and Paul Farbrace as his No.2, England’s threemonth tour of the Sub-continent had ended in defeat in all three formats, a 4-0 hammering in the Test series followed by 2-1 losses in both ODI and T20 series.
England actually only managed to win one of 13 games in that time and, had all the international games been lumped together in a Super Series, such as they contested against Sri Lanka and Pakistan last summer, the final points tally would have been India 26 England 6.
Indeed, if Bollywood decided to make a movie of this horror show, they could call it The Resilience Of The Lambs.
In years and series gone by such a paltry return might have had all sorts of repercussions, from crisis meetings resulting in the rolling heads of those in charge, from the national selector to the director of cricket to coaches and captains and senior players, not to mention another REPORT INTO THE STATE OF ENGLISH CRICKET and a three-, six- or nine-hundred point plan at the end of it.
Nobody wants a return to those bad old days.
But, while it is true that for some parts of what became a gruelling winter England were “competitive”, for too much of it they were not and among the most worrying aspects of it is that nobody seems all that bothered.
After losing the second Test in Bangladesh in Dhaka to draw that series 1-1 in October, once they arrived in India, despite winning their fair share of tosses and being presented with pitches nothing like the raging bunsens they might have expected, Alastair Cook’s side conceded first innings scores of 488, 455, 417, 631 and 759-7 and were bowled out in their own first digs for fewer than 300 on six out of ten occasions.
Following the draw in the opening Test in Rajkot, the margin of their defeats was 246 runs, 8 wickets, an innings and 36 runs and an innings and 75.
No wonder Cook ended the series conceding his side had stagnated over the past year and apparently been on the point of quitting as captain.
Much, rightly, was made of the fact that in the ODI series England made scores of 350-plus in the first two matches. Sadly for them, they also conceded scores of 356 and 381-6 before securing a consolation win in Kolkata.
Finally, when on the verge of closing out the second T20 in Nagpur to clinch the series, they blew up in the final over there, before rounding things off by disintegrating so spectacularly the other night in Bengaluru.
And what made all of this so galling for some England supporters was that, far from showing resilience, or, for that matter, any real sign of passion, hurt or anger, the overriding impression Bayliss and his players gave was that they understood that they simply were not up to the challenge that was facing them and seemed to accept the outcome as inevitable.
Indeed, about the only times England’s players lost that look, and their cool were, first, when Jos Buttler had an onfield spat with Bangladesh players Mashrafe Mortaza and Sabbir Rahman in the second ODI in Mirpur and again the other day when white ball skipper Eoin Morgan and coach Farbrace did their pieces at umpire Shamshuddin in Nagpur.
Of course, there were mitigating circumstances, including, in the Test side, the need to blood new players like Ben Duckett, Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings.
Funny how when England lose there always seem to be buckets full of them, however. So, those aside, what were the detailed thoughts of Bayliss about where how and why England failed so consistently all winter?
When it came to T20 and one-day cricket, according to Bayliss, the players are very “honest” about their failing and what they need to do to improve. Handy.
In ODI cricket the bowlers need, apparently to “do more”. In T20 cricket, they need to execute their plans better. In the wake of the collapse, speaking about the way the batsmen hit across the line too much, the coach also told us: “That’s a learning process. We’ve spoken about it.You put that down to experience.” Groan.
But he saved the best for last: “When you are playing such a good team as this at home and in these conditions,” said Bayliss, “you’ve really got to put both batting and bowling, you’ve got to put them both together.
“We seemed at different times throughout the series to bat well or bowl well and not quite as well in the other. That’s obviously something we’ll be working towards to get better at.”
Ground-breaking concept that, batting and bowling well at the same time.
Bayliss, Farbrace, Morgan, Cook and their boss Andrew Strauss all have a couple of characteristics in common, namely cool heads and an analytical approach.
Anger, passion and hurt are not everything, of course. But maybe the time has come for a little less conversation and a little more action, please.
For the end result of all their efforts this winter was a performance from them and their players that seemed, felt and looked not resilient but rather, when it really mattered, merely acquiescent. And unless the right people start getting a bit more cross about it than they seem to be right now, why would it ever change?
Far from showing resilience, the overriding impression they gave was that they understood they were simply not up to the challenge