It’s not fun anymore. Another one-day international and another defeat for England. Of the last 14 ODIs they’ve played, they have lost ten.
In truth, England haven’t been very good at this for a while. Since Eoin Morgan stepped down just over two years ago, they have won three of their eight ODI series and are now 2-0 down in their ninth. There was also the disaster-class of their World Cup defence.
England used to rock up and win and now they don’t, and as they sank to a 68-run defeat at a sold-out Headingley the crowd became sparser and sparser as people voted with their feet. They’d seen enough.
But that’s okay. Mediocrity breeds apathy, but failure creates feeling. There is only one thing in life worse than England’s defeat in the second Metro Bank One-Day International against Australia being talked about, and that is England’s defeat in the second Metro Bank One-Day International against Australia not being talked about. In the modern day, where every series and league is framed by the question, “what does this actually mean?” some professional pride taking a bruising and an angry fan or two is a good thing.
“We care deeply if we get it wrong and we care deeply if we lose games,” interim head coach Marcus Trescothick said after the match. Which from this hyper-positive England camp felt refreshing.
In elite sport, losing should hurt and winning should be great. It has become a problem that such is the number of matches, players often realise that cricket is just a game before the fans do. Which, on the one hand, is healthy for them. But on the other, breaks the illusion of sport really mattering.
Two comprehensive defeats have snapped England out of that cruise. Stand-in skipper Harry Brook has risen to every challenge that he has been presented with in his career so far – so losing his first two matches as captain, the second of which came on his home ground in front of an adoring crowd, will rankle. Twenty-year-old prodigy Jacob Bethell has been told for years that international cricket is the best thing he could ever imagine, and now he’s here, losing one-dayers in the cold of September. Brydon Carse spent most of the afternoon going at 10s; Will Jacks got a golden duck and bowled two overs for 19; Liam Livingstone also got a first-baller to go with two overs for 23. International cricket. Best job in the world.
Failure, however, can be the foundation for success. Had England bossed this series, cracks would have been papered and the general shrug of the shoulders towards bilateral ODI series would’ve continued.
But blow it up, fail and fail spectacularly, and we have context. It was only after the ignominious 2015 World Cup campaign that England got their act together and it led to four years of one-day cricket with meaning. A team was being built and fans were invested. The thrilling 3-2 win over New Zealand in the first series under Morgan’s captaincy captured imaginations and the 5-0 hammering of Australia in 2018 confirmed it. This was a team and a journey worth being on.
England know that change is needed and know that it’s not fun anymore. At his unveiling as the new white-ball coach, Brendon McCullum cited one of his main tasks as putting a smile back on Jos Buttler’s face. “He’s been a little bit miserable at times,” he said of Buttler.
The difficulty is that this change has yet to arrive. With McCullum’s January start date and Trescothick and Brook currently operating in stand-in roles, England have decided that they must absolutely go on a life-changing diet… starting Monday. Brook said ahead of the series that he had hardly spoken to McCullum, with the fingerprints of the man who’s set to take on the role yet to be seen on this team.
Trescothick, who is a trusted ally of McCullum, disputes that (in part because he has to, he can hardly say it’s all a waste of time). After the match, he said that rather than this series being a holding pattern, it was a chance to “make an impact and set the gameplan in place”.
“The language we’re using, the process of what we’re trying to do within the group is going to be exactly the same going forward,” he said. “We’ll continue to play in the fashion we want to because that’s what we’re going to be doing when we finally make the change and Brendon comes in January. Nothing will be different.”
McCullum didn’t want the white-ball job in 2022 because the team was cruising and he was after a challenge. Well now he’s got one. With the Test team, he transformed their fortunes from one win in 17 to the Bazball-infused carnage that we live with today. And with the one-day team, he is tasked with taking a group of young players who hardly play 50-over cricket and turning them into world-beaters. As Brook pointed out after the match: “We’re a young side, Adil Rashid is the highest run-scorer in ODI cricket for us.”
For inspiration, they need not look further than their opponents. Current world champions, Australia have won 14 ODIs in a row. Against an England team at the start of their latest regeneration, they fielded a team with eight of their XI from the World Cup final and nine players with more than 100 international appearances. England had one.
“It hits different when you play for your country,” Adam Zampa said ahead of this series and his 100th ODI. “When you win World Cups, I’ve still got that drive to win many more. I never thought I’d play this much for Australia.”
McCullum has a chance to breed that culture in a fresh group of players ready to grow and win again. England’s last two great rebuilds, white-ball in 2015 and red-ball in 2022, started from rock bottom. With a few more losses, it could be third time lucky.