Despite England’s heavy defeat in the fifth and final ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo, Nasser Hussain has said that it was just an one off day for the No.1 ranked ODI side and won’t have any bearing on their World Cup campaign next year.
Having taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match ODI series, England made quite a few changes in their playing XI in the last game. Skipper Eoin Morgan opted to rest himself along with the all-rounder Chris Woakes and pacer Olly Stone.
Sri Lanka piled on a mountain of runs, ending with a very stiff first innings score of 366/6 in their 50 overs, before almost running through the explosive visiting batting line-up, which finished with 132/9 in just 26.1 overs before the rain intervened and the game got awarded to the home side by a margin of 219 runs on the DLS method.
"England were awful, make no mistake. They didn't play very well and it was just one of those days. They'll say 'let's put it all to bed in one game' and move on. I don't think this will have any bearing on a World Cup in May, June and July in England next year. It was just a very bad day at the office,” Hussain told Sky Sports.
"Previous England one-day sides have been complicated sides, full of theory and overthinking. This is not one of those sides, they will just shrug it off and make no excuses. We have got an England one-day side we can be very proud of. It was just a game too many for a side pushed too hard by playing out here at this time of year.
"[All the changes] gave a tour already on a knife-edge, because of the scheduling and the weather and the cabin-fever the players would have been feeling, an end-of-term feel. It was almost 'the tour's done, the series is won, we are having a look at people'," he explained.
During Sri Lanka’s innings, Ben Stokes foul-mouthed his teammate Moeen Ali and Mark Wood for making some errors while fielding. Hussain though has no issues with the all-rounder showing his frustration.
"Is it a newsflash that occasionally Stokes gets a bit angry on a cricket field and shouts at his team-mates?" added the former England captain. "I quite like that.
"England needed a bit of that, there were coasting, going through the motions, the fielding was awful at best. People weren't that bothered about stopping the twos. Ben, in the heat, said it wasn't good enough and had a go at them. I like the fact you can pick each other up when you fall below the standards but that it's not done all the time," he continued.
England will now take on Sri Lanka in the solitary T20I on October 27 before locking horns in the three-match Test series from November 6.
