By The Telegraph (World News) | Created at 2024-09-24 11:00:31 | Updated at 2024-09-30 09:40:32
5 days ago
Good morning (just) and welcome to live coverage of the third ODI between England and Australia which Mitch Marsh’s men are leading 2-0. England have endured a rocky start to their reset, markedly different to the white-ball series against New Zealand in 2015 after their nadir at the spring World Cup Down Under. But we have to take a couple of things into account: England started that era with the mission to win the 2019 World Cup on home soil and hence resources were focused on that goal with consequences for the red-ball side that caused uproar that has largely been forgotten; in 2015 England were starting from a much lower base in terms of expectation than they are this autumn.
In common with 2015 when James Anderson and Stuart Broad were pensioned off from white-ball cricket, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes and, possibly temporarily, Joe Root and Ben Stokes have made way for new blood. And there have been a couple of promising signs from the all-round contributions of Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith and Liam Livingstone, the batting of Ben Duckett and the bowling of Matthew Potts and the evergreen Adil Rashid. Moreover, they had Australia under the pump on two occasions, when England were 213 for two in Nottingham with plenty of overs to spare but were bowled out by Marnus Labsuchagne of all people and in Leeds when they had Australia at 221 for nine and allowed them to put on 49 for the last wicket.
It is encouraging that they are getting themselves into advantageous positions – something that they were unable to do against the Test-playing countries at the 2023 World Cup – the next step is seizing the initiative at those moments. Harry Brook needs to show that he can play a substantial match-winning, middle-order innings from the No5 spot that was so pivotal when Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes or Jos Buttler batted there. If Buttler is to give up the gloves on his return he has to bat in the top four and now is the time for Brook to nail down his place.
And, let’s not forget, Australia are world champions with only the retired David Warner and the absent Pat Cummins missing from that squad, and have played like world champions at those crucial moments.
The weather forecast is grisly – the prospect of showers never lower than 40 per cent from 1pm until 8pm and a Baltic top temperature of 14C. We will be lucky to get any kind of game at all but if we do it will be on-off and scrappy with the ball like a bar of soap after a few overs.
