It may be too early to say England have a mountain to climb in the Cricket World Cup, but rapid progression is required as the team take on Bangladesh in the shadow of the Himalayas.
Jos Buttler’s team did not put up a great performance against New Zealand in their opening match. It was quite a dismal performance, in truth, as they collapsed to a nine-wicket defeat in Ahmedabad.
England stuttered at 282-9 as they failed to build substantial partnerships – each of the first six stands reached at least 24 but only one passed fifty: Joe Root and Buttler added 70 for the fifth wicket.
Ball in hand, England then showed itself to be capricious. Chris Woakes lost 27 runs in his first three overs, Mark Wood hemorrhaged 38 in his first three overs.
New Zealand were 92-1 after 11 overs and finally achieved their target with 82 balls to go to reach the top of the World Cup rankings, leaving England rooted to the foot of it.
To further the mountain references, the question was asked whether this England team is past its peak with only four members of the team (Sam Curran, Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook and Reece Topley) under the age of 30. Only two of them – Brook and Curran – played against New Zealand.
With age comes wisdom and experience, the knowledge that you can win World Cups after setbacks, which England did in the 50-over version at home in 2019 and in the edition T20 in Australia last year.
But with age also comes cracking bones. Ben Stokes’ hip is the last part of his body to give him some pep. This led to him missing the match against New Zealand and he may not feature in Tuesday’s encounter against Bangladesh as concerns persist over the quality of the outfield.
Buttler described the surface at the HPCA Stadium, which hosted Saturday’s clash between Bangladesh and Afghanistan, as “poor” and said it could compromise the “integrity of the game”, with players possibly having to be ” cautious” in the field.
“It goes against everything you want to be as a team,” Buttler said ahead of a match you can watch live. Air sport cricket And Sky Sports main event from 5:30 a.m. (6 a.m. first ball).
Mehidy and Shanto in form for Bangladesh
With Dharamshala located in the foothills of the Himalayas, temperatures tend to be cooler and conditions often favor bowlers. This is why Topley is set to enter the XI, most likely at the expense of one of England’s spin bowling all-rounders, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali.
Yet Bangladeshi spinners Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz had fun on Saturday, taking three wickets each as Bangladesh bowled out Afghanistan for 156.
Although the venue proved to be a haven for pace bowlers on Tuesday, Bangladesh also had some good quicks in their side.
Right-armer Taskin Ahmed has taken 22 ODI wickets in 2023 at an average of less than 18, while Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam are two left-arm slippers.
In terms of batting for Bangladesh, Najmul Hossain Shanto took his ODI runs tally this calendar year to 757 with an unbeaten 59 against Afghanistan, his eighth fifty-plus score in 15 innings, while Mehidy is now firing with the blade after being elevated in the rankings. command from its usual berth No. 7 or No. 8.
The spin-bowling all-rounder scored a century when opening against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup in September, reached half-centuries at number 3 or number 4 against England and Sri Lanka in World Cup warm-up matches and then kicked off his World Cup with 57 against Afghanistan.
What will reassure England is that Bangladesh have recorded just three fifty-over opening partnerships in one-day international cricket in 2023, so Buttler’s boys will be keen to make inroads early against a team they will not take lightly. England have already been burned by Bangladesh.
Will England ‘throw more punches’ in second match?
A defeat against the Tigers confirmed England’s soft exit from the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, having been swept aside 3-0 by them in a T20 international series in March of This year.
England won the ODI series against Bangladesh this spring but were denied a 3-0 whitewash as Shakib’s fifty-four wickets earned the hosts a 50-run victory in Chattogram.
That 2015 defeat to Bangladesh was one of the darkest days in English white-ball cricket, but it sparked a turnaround that led to the team becoming reigning world champions in both limited-overs formats, achieved playing fearless and aggressive cricket.
England appeared to move away from that against New Zealand on Thursday. “They didn’t throw a lot of punches. I don’t think they went hard enough,” 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan said of the batting. We should probably expect less timidity against Bangladesh.
Winning well is now important for England.
Yes, they suffered three defeats en route to their 2019 triumph at home, but each of those three defeats was close while their first misstep against New Zealand here was an absolute hammer blow.
The only way is up. Let the ascent begin.
Watch England vs Bangladesh Live Air sport cricket from 5:30 a.m. Tuesday (first ball at 6:00 a.m.) or follow the text commentary successively on skysports.com and on the Sky Sports app.
Watch every Cricket World Cup match live on Sky Sports. You can also stream with NOW for £21 per month for six months.