Former England pacer Steve Harmison has stated that he fails to understand the rationale behind the England team skipping training sessions ahead of the second ODI against India, to be played at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on February 9, 2025.
While India had a long training session, the Jos Buttler-led team chose not to train. England lost the T20I series 4-1 and suffered a four-wicket defeat in the first one-day international in Nagpur.
“Yes, I must admit, I was surprised when we heard that England were going to have not so much a day off. Sometimes it can be counterproductive when you keep getting beat or things aren’t going as well as you’d want. Sometimes it is a good thing to get away from it, but like I’ve said in previous podcasts, how England has lost, I struggle to understand, especially with the Champions Trophy coming up, that you just have a complete day off,” Harmison said on TalkSport Cricket.
England's batting had failed to capitalize in Nagpur with only Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell scoring fifties and Phil Salt making 43 runs. The bowlers did take two Indian wickets early in the chase, but Shubman Gill anchored the chase with 87 runs, while Shreyas Iyer (59) and Axar Patel (52) played attacking cricket to chase down the total.
“A compulsory one, England doesn’t do compulsory practices under Brendon McCullum. It’s them that want to work on their game, they go and work on their game. And I mean, what have we had? In the series so far, we’ve had five T20s and an ODI. It’s had 340 overs, combined overs, and I mean, that’s probably a full test match, three and three quarter of a day of a Test match.
“In three- and three-quarter days. So, I mean, it’s not that being demanding from the body point of I think it’s been demanding technically, I think it’s been demanding mentally for some of them. And I think, well, hey, I’m not going to sit here and say you should be going practicing, you should be doing this, you should be doing that,” Harmison added.
Steve Harmison also said there is something not quite right and clicking with this England team.
“Where England are with a week or two weeks to go before a Champions Trophy, number 11’s has batted six times in six white-ball games, five of them in T20s. Something’s not right. Something needs addressing and people lying in their rooms, playing on a golf course, sitting playing on a PlayStation, possibly lying by a pool.
“Is that going to solve it? Hey, I’m just questioning what a lot of people will be questioning, that there’s something not quite right and clicking with this team because they’re playing against one of the best teams in the world in their own back garden.
You could argue it was their B-side in the T20s, it’s their A-side in the 50 overs. And look, like they did before, they might come back and ram this straight down my throat and win here. And if they do, I will praise them to the hilt. Good on them. Go for it.
But I’m very, very, I was a little bit surprised to hear that not one person trained, especially with a 15, 16-man squad and you’re getting beat affectionately 6-0 so far. Sorry, 5-1 in a six-match series so far. I was a little surprised,” Harmison signed off.
Meanwhile, England won the toss in the second ODI and chose to bat first. England made three changes as Mark Wood, Jamie Overton, and Gus Atkinson have been included in the XI. For India, Virat Kohli comes in and Varun Chakaravarthy makes his ODI debut.
