After sweeping aside Australia in last month’s ODI series, England are being talked up as favourites for next year’s World Cup. Jonathan Liew urges extreme caution…
And it was all going so well, too. England demolished Australia 4-1 in the ODI series. Virtually everyone contributed. Tom Curran did a very passable impression of a world-class death bowler. Australia were forced to recall a 61-year-old Cameron White. Joe Root pulled off his neat trick of scoring bundles of runs without ever really playing any shots at all. So yes, a deeply encouraging few weeks, especially after the protracted ordeal of the Ashes that preceded it. But then, of course, Trevor Bayliss had to go and spoil things.
“The way we have been playing one-day cricket over the last few years,” the England coach said, “and with the World Cup at home, we should be one of the favourites.”
Oh, no.
So maybe, in contravention of the classic sporting trope, we should be trying to ‘take the negatives’ from this latest resounding success. At some point, an opposition captain will surely notice that Root doesn’t hit boundaries, and bring the field in accordingly. Eoin Morgan is surely due another shocking run of form before next June, and perhaps another beyond that. Ben Stokes could be watching the tournament from a locked cell.
You can probably think of some of your own; indeed, it may be your patriotic duty to do so. Remember: in order to build hope, you must first abandon all traces of it.
