Former England skipper and cricket expert Nasser Hussain was disappointed with home side’s consecutive defeats against Sri Lanka and Australia in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
With 64-runs defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Australia at Lord’s on Wednesday, 25th June, England suffered their third defeat of the ongoing tournament and just two more games are at their hands against in-form India and New Zealand, which makes their chances of making it to the semifinals a bit challenging after their series if defeats in the tournament.
However, Hussain doesn’t deny their chances for the World Cup but said their current show makes it very vulnerable while slamming Eoin Morgan and his troops by saying that finding out the difference between bi-lateral series and marquee events.
Hussain wrote in his column for Daily Mail, “England are also finding out the difference between bi-lateral series and tournament play. You face different sides with different strengths, going from the spin and unorthodox action of Lasith Malinga against Sri Lanka to the pace and swing of Australia in successive matches. And they haven't coped with either.”
The Englishman also criticized the national pace attack for not making enough of the Lord’s surface, saying they should have bowled stump-to-stump line, like Jason Behrendorff and Mitchell Starc -who shared 9 wickets between them to lead Australia to a memorable win.
He further explained, “Yes, England went past the edge a few times after winning the toss in perfect bowling conditions but the reason for that was they were bowling short of a good length. How many of those balls would have hit the stumps? Not nearly enough.
England is not out of the World Cup yet but this leaves them very vulnerable. It was left to Australia in the form of the left-armers Starc and Behrendorff to show England how it should be done - pitch it up on a full length and get the batsmen coming forward to bring caught, bowled and lbw all into play."
Meanwhile, the 51-year-old also said that the Australian pacers adjusted to the conditions better than England, adding: “Australia adjusted to conditions while England could not. They went with Behrendorff ahead of Nathan Coulter-Nile and then handed him the new ball over Pat Cummins. They knew they needed someone to swing it into England's pads and Behrendorff obliged.”
Hussain added, “England, meanwhile, have gone with pace and hit the deck bowlers in this tournament and left out someone who pitches it up and tries to swing it in David Willey but you can't tell me the likes of Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer cannot adjust.”
Noteworthy, England could face a very difficult task to beat India and then New Zealand to qualify for the World Cup semi-finals if Pakistan manages to beat the Black Caps on Wednesday, then they will have certainly great chance to beat Bangladesh and Afghanistan to make it to the top four.
Hussain signed off by saying, “We are talking about a clash against an India side at Edgbaston on Sunday on what is likely to be a turning pitch with the weather becoming hot. India is not invincible and are weaker for the loss of Shikhar Dhawan but that is still a very difficult task for England.
As England captain, Morgan will have to tell his side that they are not out of this yet. He cannot change his ways and over-react to a defeat. But he will know this is a bad time to lose successive home games for the first time in four years.”
(With Daily Mail Inputs)
