How England Cricket Transformed Their White Ball Fortunes

England is the first team to hold the ICC T20 and ODI titles at the same time.

(Photo: PTI)

Back in 1985, Australian cricket was in a real crisis. They had lost their three great players Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh to retirement. Then another set of players had travelled to South Africa on what was then considered to be a rebel tour.

It was right then that Australia set about changing the way they ran the sport in their country. An academy was set up from which graduated several young players who would form the core of their side across Tests and ODIs in the 1990s and beyond.

Australia became the gold standard for cricket because of this system and most advocated the Sheffield Shield-style model of having minimum number of sides in domestic cricket. Some top players emerged in the 1990s because of the investment in the late 1980s in Academy and grassroots cricket, by what was then the Australian Cricket Board (ACB).

The English always envied the Aussies, not least because it was around the same time that The Ashes results were a foregone conclusion, even before a ball was bowled- right through the 1990s. England needed a reboot across all formats, especially Tests which they worshipped.

One-day cricket was a bit of a hit and giggle which did not really merit much attention, except when they were playing at home. For a while till coloured clothing took over, English ODI squads while playing at home would not even wear the same sweater they wore for home Test matches!

It changed for a bit in 1997 when the Hollioake brothers stepped in and it appeared as if English ODI cricket would have a different outlook. They out-bowled, out-thought and out-planned India, Pakistan, and West Indies in a four-nation tournament in Sharjah in December 1997. That turned out to be a radical side with several ODI specialists and all-rounders under Adam Hollioake.

It felt as if England had stolen a march over Australia for once by naming a specialist ODI squad. Australia followed suit soon after naming Steve Waugh as their first ODI only captain and Mark Taylor as the Test captain. Australia could not be left behind in innovation or setting benchmarks.

England were the first to get in specialist coaches for their sides, whereas Australia was consistent with selection unlike their traditional rivals. Both sides were involved in a cat and mouse game in terms of moving up a notch in the game. But Australia always had the upper hand because of their set-up, system and because they kept winning the Ashes!

Australia then became a winning machine under Steve Waugh, and then Ricky Ponting in Tests. It was nigh impossible for anyone to catch them even as West Indies' cricket spiralled quite dramatically at the time.

It was then that English cricket decided that they needed to make several changes to match their favourite opponents. The first change came when they mirrored the Aussies in coming up with central contracts for players back in 1999. This ensured that English players were wedded to the national team and not tied to checking on their county sides every week. Then under a hard-nosed Nasser Hussain as captain and Duncan Fletcher as head coach, England developed a side that gradually moved up the Test ladder. It resulted in that famous 2005 Ashes triumph under Michael Vaughan.

But ODI cricket was still a distant cousin. It was still ‘pyjama cricket’ for the English and they did not really hurt much when they lost in the 50 over format. They had been in the 1979, 1987 and 1992 World Cup finals, but never looked good enough to win the crown. The slide began post the 1992 World Cup in what was a lost decade for England.

Exits from the 2003 and 2007 World Cups also did not hurt them. During the 2011 World Cup they even lost to Ireland at Bangalore. They moved to a captain each in all three formats post the 2011 World Cup, but nothing seemed to work. Yes, during the 2010 T20 World Cup they did surprise everyone, including themselves, by going in with a specialist T20 side under Paul Collingwood to emerge world champions.

But there was still a conflict in what was important for them.

Just before the 2015 World Cup, when Alastair Cook was still the Test and ODI captain, the English board took a tough call. They dropped Cook not just as the ODI captain but also from the squad. Eoin Morgan was headhunted to lead the side at the 2015 ODI World Cup.

The tournament ended in disaster as England was knocked out by Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval.

That night, as Jos Buttler himself noted during the 2022 T20 World Cup, there was complete silence in the English dressing room at the Adelaide Oval. Morgan took charge of the side and demanded equal importance for his role as much as the Test captain had. He demanded the best players to be always available. He was in-charge and the English board backed him in his demands because they were keen to set a benchmark by winning the 2019 World Cup that they were to host. In Trevor Bayliss as the head coach, Morgan found a useful ally. Of course along the way the likes of analyst Nathan Leamon also stepped forward with their numbers.

In between, during the 2016 T20 World Cup England was defeated in the final by a Carlos Brathwaite punch and the 2017 Champions Trophy campaign ended in the semi-finals against Pakistan.

But England was slowly starting to play a brand of cricket that sides would start being wary about, especially in ODIs. They were aiming for 350 or more on flat pitches in ODI cricket and setting new benchmarks. The plan was to have deep line-ups with a lot of batting and a number of dual-purpose players who could do more than one thing.

In between all this, England also addressed the other big elephant in the room- the Indian Premier League (IPL). One big conflict in the English dressing rooms since the late 2000s was how to look at the IPL. The likes of Kevin Pietersen were keen to play the T20 league, but the other lot felt it was not important.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had roped in former captain Andrew Strauss as Managing Director of the Men's Cricket Team. Strauss’ mandate was to look at the English men’s cricket side and take policy decisions with regards to selection, appointment of coaching staff, prepare plans etc. Strauss took a considered decision to let English players play IPL even if it clashed with the early county season. This freed up a whole host of T20/ODI specialists to play IPL, while their first-class season kickstarted in April/May every year.

English players felt they improved a lot in white ball skills as a result. The other major decision was to separate selection of sides for each format. So even if a player had scored a hundred or taken a five-wicket haul in a Test match that did not mean he would be automatically chosen for a white ball game. The player’s suitability mattered a lot for the specific white ball format. Hence despite his red hot form, Joe Root is nowhere in the T20I squad.

File picture of Stuart Broad and James Anderson.

(Photo: BCCI)

The doyens of English bowling James Anderson and Stuart Broad were not considered for the white ball formats. Broad did return briefly in 2016 but was quickly benched. Today Anderson and Broad are nearing new milestones in Test match bowling records because they are being preserved just for the longer formats.

Several other radical decisions were taken depending on the need at that time. The biggest of them all was the decision to fast-track Jofra Archer, the genuine speedster into the English ODI squad for the 2019 World Cup. Archer and Mark Wood’s express pace played a huge part in England’s performances in the 2019 World Cup.

The man leading the charge for England in the white ball format Morgan started dropping form. His place in the side became a matter of debate. It reached a point, earlier in 2022, when he could no longer sustain his place in the side and decided to retire just six months before the T20 World Cup.

The way the white ball sides had been developed by Morgan and the former coach Bayliss was that they had a leadership succession plan in place. Jos Buttler fitted in very well and took charge almost effortlessly.

England captain Jos Buttler with the 2022 T20 World Cup trophy.

(Photo: PTI)

What also helped was that England was once again moving in a new direction with two separate coaches, one for Tests and the other for white ball. So, Matthew Mott stepped in for the white ball squad and Brendon McCullum for Tests. Once again England was the pioneer by being the first one to split coaching roles.

Mott came with great pedigree having supervised the domination of the Australian women’s team, whereas McCullum was a left field choice for Tests. We have seen what McCullum’s influence has done to the English Test side.

The triumph on Sunday night at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in the T20 World Cup final was just one more stop in a journey that England have undertaken to become the world beaters in shorter formats. Along the way they have had several bumps in Test match format with a feeling being that they are now more focused on doing well only in white ball cricket.

But there has always been an admission of a problem and a process has been charted out to solve it.

At the last count they have had four reviews in just the last 15 years:

• Post the 2006-07 Ashes debacle

• Post the 2013-14 Ashes debacle

• Post the 2015 World Cup debacle

• Post the 2020-21 Ashes debacle

At the end of each review, they have taken corrective decisions. The appointment of Paul Downton, Strauss, then Ashley Giles and now Rob Key as Managing Director or Director of Cricket has played a huge part in driving the solutions.

For the first time in a long while, England has been a trendsetter in innovating in cricket rather than Australia. This has helped England in being double world champion in men’s cricket currently. The debate on who has the better system will probably be settled next year during the Ashes.

But till then England has given plenty to think about for all the cricket boards and sides around the world. Not everything that emerges out of English cricket is that bad, after all they are on top of the world!