For England’s beleaguered one-day international side, Asia has not been their friend. But after consecutive humiliating ODI tournaments in the subcontinent, the 2027 ODI World Cup is being staged in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, countries where pace plays a much more prominent role.
The timing of the tournament could also help England. The World Cup will be played in October and November - early season in Southern Africa. At that time of year, the pitches tend to be spicy, often offering seamers abundant help, but marginalising spin.
England, then, will face a very different campaign in 2027. Yet this does not obscure the need for radical changes if they are to get better results - beginning in these five areas.
A schedule that gives the players a chance
Jamie Smith last played a domestic one-day game in 2021. Little wonder, perhaps, that he has struggled to emulate his Test form during his nine ODIs. In Pakistan, he was not helped by being tasked with batting at number three for the first time in his international cricket: an echo of the late tinkering with the batting order that characterised England’s 1999, 2011 and 2015 World Cup campaigns. During the 2023 campaign, Harry Brook admitted that he was “learning on the job” in 50-over cricket. Brook did not play a single one-day match between 2019 and his ODI debut in 2023.
The lack of domestic one-day cricket has an obvious cause: The Hundred. But, especially after the sale of the Hundred generated £500 million for the English game, the competition is entrenched as a fact of the summer, as inevitable as overheated railway tracks.
Yet the Hundred should not prevent a schedule that gives scope for the emerging generation to learn the distinct skills of the one-day game. From 2026, the domestic season should begin with a batch of one-day cricket; this would have the added boon of making early season injuries to fast bowlers least likely. England could also reintroduce the North-South series to give fringe players more experience of high-quality one-day cricket and give the 50-over greater emphasis in the Lions programme.
Learning to cruise again
‘Cruising speed’ – the capacity to score briskly in the middle overs while minimising risk – was England’s superpower in the 2015-19 era. Ben Duckett and Joe Root have found this same speed in Pakistan, scoring centuries at over a run-a-ball.
Yet England’s other top-order batsmen have, just as in the 2023 World Cup, failed to locate this tempo. Barring Duckett and Root, no one has even made 40 for England this tournament.
The struggles to exploit the limit of four fielders being permitted outside the 30-yard circle during the middle overs without being reckless and find the distinctive rhythm that ODI cricket demands are unsurprising. They reflect the paucity of one-day cricket, both at international level and below, that England now play.
Yet not all the blame can be placed on the schedule; most opponents in the Champions Trophy also play relatively little one-day cricket. But, where England have come to regard ODIs as an extension of T20s, batsmen in other countries have shown the adaptability that 50-over cricket demands.
Since the 2023 World Cup began, England’s batsmen have only scored seven centuries in 25 innings – one every four matches. In the same period, the other seven nations in the Champions Trophy have scored 62 centuries in 116 games - better than one every two matches.
Replacing Stokes
The balance of England’s side in India relied upon Liam Livingstone and Joe Root to share ten overs - even more, in the event of an injury to a frontline bowler. The consequences were predictable.
The struggles to build a team with both enough batting and bowling depth betray England’s continued inability to replace Ben Stokes in ODI cricket. As well as being an outstanding player, Stokes is also the type of cricketer that analysts consider the most valuable in the white-ball game: a seam-bowling all-rounder who can bat in the top seven. While spin-bowling all-rounders are relatively common, pace-bowling all-rounders are scarce. They unlock new tactical options - allowing teams to bowl up to 40 overs of seam, while also fielding a frontline spinner.
The chances of Stokes playing in South Africa in 2027 appear remote. As such, England need to invest opportunity in players who can help to fulfil his role. While no such seam-bowling all-rounder can bat at four, as Stokes once did, the improvement in Sam Curran’s batting means that he could develop into a fine number seven.
Handily, he would also be another left-hander. While Curran’s bowling has struggled, his combination of new-ball swing and cutters later in the innings should still be able to bowl five overs or so regularly. This would enable England to bowl at least 35 overs of seam an innings, as they will surely need to in the next World Cup.
More variety in pace attack
In the 2023 World Cup, England spoke of prioritising “ball speed”. The two standard-bearers for this approach, Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood. returned combined figures of 10 for 495 - averaging 49.5, and conceding 6.3 an over.
In Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, England have once again emphasised speed. The pace attack – Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Brydon Carse and Jamie Overton – have returned a combined 7-412, averaging 58.9 while conceding 7.6 an over. In consecutive ODI tournaments, then, England have learned the limits of speed alone; indeed, their best seamer in either event, David Willey in 2023, was also their slowest.
The selectors are right that pace is crucial – but wrong to think that it is the only thing. England would not have won the 2019 World Cup without Chris Woakes, who took 6-57 across the semi-final and final combined. While more of a seamer than swing bowler, Matthew Potts is best-equipped to replacing Woakes’s role. Two games ago, Potts took 4-38 opening the bowling against Australia. Yet he was promptly discarded, seemingly considered too slow.
While South African conditions should suit England’s new commitment to pace, the seamers will need range, too. In Pakistan, Jofra Archer aside, England’s bowlers have scarcely attempted slower balls or cutters in their first two games. England also need to develop left-arm seamers.
Taking wickets in middle overs
Across their two opening defeats in the Champions Trophy, England took a combined 4-362 from 60 overs in the middle phase of the game. Herein lies the simplest explanation for England’s failure to contain their opponents - and allow both Australia and Afghanistan to accelerate devastatingly in the final ten overs.
England are well aware of the need to take wickets in the middle overs. But their seamers’ relentless adoption of back-of-a-length tactics has rendered them far too predictable. Sometimes, cunning containment can bring wickets too.
Wrist spin, of course, remains the classic way to extract wickets in the middle overs. Adil Rashid will be 39 come the 2027 World Cup. If his current form suggests that he might yet be able to make that tournament, the need to develop his successor has never been more urgent. Rehan Ahmed is among the players who will now have to lead England’s reinvigoration.
