England turn to Gary to get the Ballance right
PETER MOORES has defended England’s muchderided approach to the one- day game — and Alastair Cook’s role — but refused to rule out changes before the World Cup.
The fourth one-day international at Edgbaston today provides England with their last chance to avoid losing a series against India that represented their first step in another attempt to conquer the world in 50-over cricket.
So far it could not have gone much worse, two heavy defeats allowing India to turn the tables after their Test embarrassment, while leaving England fighting to counter accusations that they are playing a different, outdated game.
Moores, the England coach, remains convinced Cook is the best man to lead England towards the World Cup while the search for the right formula and personnel for a tilt at an elusive first World Cup triumph goes on.
‘We’re going to find out as we go along,’ said Moores on whether England have their balance right, providing hope to James Taylor, Ravi Bopara, Jason Roy and James Vince. ‘Alastair is hungry and his form is starting to come back. We saw it in the Test series and now we’re starting to see it in the one-dayers.
‘It doesn’t mean he’s where he wants to be, and neither are we as a side, but when Alastair’s in form he’s got his way of playing that can be effective in one- day cricket. His record matches a lot of other people’s and his conversion rate is pretty high, with five hundreds and 19 halfcenturies in 80-odd games.’
But unless England show signs of genuine improvement in the last two matches of this series — and in Sri Lanka in November — time will be running out for the World Cup.
The main accusation is that England are too old-fashioned in trying to build a platform before leaving acceleration to the likes of Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler. Moores said: ‘We know we have to get the right score when we bat in one-day games but there are different ways of reaching it. We have people in our squad who can score at a very high rate, Alex Hales at the top and people like Morgan and Buttler.
‘But you still have to get in and build. Each side is made up of players who strike faster and some who are solid. We’ve got to get the balance right, but we’ve got to work fast. We’re not going to hide.
‘When people say, “You’re going back to how England played in the past”, that’s not our view. We’re clear on our strategy but we have to find the right people to put that in place. One-day cricket is not as simple as people going out and whacking it. Even the best sides don’t just do that.’
For now, the best England can do is give chances to Gary Ballance, who averages more than 50 in domestic one- day cricket, and Moeen Ali to try to give their batting a muchneeded boost against India.