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Time to come home England –

well, for a few days anyway!

I’m glad this tour is over, I’d had enough of it, so god knows how the players who have been out there since the start of the Ashes feel.

So where are England now in their preparations for the world cup? Not in a very good place I would say. We now have injuries, fatigue and probably little confidence.

It is though good to see Andy Flower not getting carried away with the defeats. Ahead of the 7th game he was quick to point out how England have been ahead at the half way point in most of the matches, basically saying that there is no real need to tear up the blueprint and start again.

Personally, I would be absolutely amazed if Flower hasn’t got a solid plan prepared for the World Cup. He is too thorough and well organised – although it was a major surprise to see him drop Davies in favour of Prior at such a late stage.

It has to be said though that the ODI series has been an absolute disaster for England. The manner of some of the defeats has been unbelievable, I’m still wondering how we lost that 6th game.

Then to top it all off, we comfortably lose the last game to an Australian side consisting off 8/1000 Krejza and without the rested Watson, Lee and Michael Clarke – who half of Australia wanted dropped a couple of weeks ago and he now finds himself in the luxurious position of being rested.

For me, England lost the series in the opening couple of games and then never really recovered from it. Shane Watson’s knock at Melbourne showed the Aussies that England were beatable and gave them confidence.

Watson’s innings rescued Australia’s summer, along with this T20 performances, he turned the whole tour in Australia’s favour.

At the same time England’s batting was going downhill – with the exception of Jonathan Trott. Not sure if the batting ingredients have been right in the ODI’s, or if this is just down to the fact that it is the back end of a long tour, a tour in which they achieved their ultimate aim.

But the manner in which some of the batsmen have lost their wickets in this series has been awful. I’m not going to be over critical of them though, as it was a bit after the lord mayor’s show. But they have to improve no end if they are to have a serious chance of competing at the world cup.

I’ve wrote it many times before on this blog, I’m a massive Ian Bell fan. But for a bloke in such good form, he hasn’t put together one innings of note in this series. He should be dominating matches, not hitting good looking 30’s and 40’s and then getting out.

With the ball, considering three to four of the first choice bowling line up has been out injured throughout this series, I think we didn’t do that badly. There have been some lapses like in the 6th game, but on the whole it has been ok.

Also Chris Woakes has been a success as well, so the series has had at least one positive to take out of it.

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4 Comments

  1. Tell me about it Dean. I think the players just wanted to get out of there. What was the pint of so many ODIs anyway? These two sides need to get over this love affair of playing with each other so much, something theyre not exactly doing in the near future.

    I would have had Prior from the beginning. The likes of Davies and Kieswetter would never have come into getting such a run in the first team.

  2. Hi Stani, I would imagine the reason for all the ODI’s is the same as ever – money. Think this series has all but ruined any chance England had of winning the world cup, it has wrecked us.

    I have just read a piece on the Daily Telegraph website that says there may be back-to-back Ashes series in 2013 (10 tests, 14 ODI’s and 4 T20’s), how the hell can this be so? England will need a pool of about 20 bowlers at this rate.

    And just for good measure and in case England & Australia haven’t played each other enough, they are playing 5 ODI’s in England in 2012 as well.

    I agree about Prior, not convinced about him opening, but he should definately be in the team.

  3. Ideally, it should have been a 5 match series..the whole concept of a 7 match ODI series is as absurd as having a 2 Test series..both are extremes in scheduling…having said that, the Ashes really drained the Poms more than the Aussies…they just didn’t bring the same fight to the ODIs…as for the injuries, most long tours have a toll on the bodies of the players….plain unfortunate that it had to happen right before a World Cup where they stand a real chance of winning one for the first time…

  4. Yep, 5 matches at the most – and before the Ashes.

    It would have given England a chance to rest up for 2-3 weeks before setting off for the world cup.

    With this current itinery, I have to wonder was it even worth coming back to England at all? It hardly seems worth it.

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