Mark Butcher has labelled England’s performance with the ball against Afghanistan as “miles off the pace”, singling out Chris Woakes’ form in particular as a “massive issue” for the defending champions.

England lost to Afghanistan for the first time ever in international cricket in Delhi yesterday (October 15), recording their second loss in three 2023 World Cup matches and leaving their knockout qualification hopes hanging by a thread. They had particular problems with the ball in the powerplay. Woakes conceded 31 runs off his first three overs and only bowled one further over in Afghanistan’s innings. Sam Curran also only bowled four overs, and ended up with figures of 0-46.

“The opening partnership of 114 put us on the back foot and rather quashed any hopes there were that Chris Woakes’ first two games of bad form were just a blip as he was easing his way into the tournament,” said Butcher, speaking on the Wisden Cricket World Cup Daily podcast. “He got absolutely slaughtered. When the change bowlers came on, or when Sam Curran in particular comes on, the floodgates open. England were miles off the pace.

“Woakes and Curran have gone for 87 off eight without taking a wicket today, and this is not us jumping on his back after today. I said before the tournament started that I really don’t like him [Curran] as a middle overs bowler in 50-over cricket. I don’t see it as a role that he is equipped to be able to do. At the moment England have got their stool set out on him doing that job. One thing that they couldn’t have flagged up before the tournament started was Chris Woakes having the nightmare he’s having. That’s a massive, massive issue for them.

England eventually bowled Afghanistan out for 284 but fell well short in the chase. They were bowled out for 214 in 40.3 overs, giving Afghanistan their second ever victory in men’s ODI World Cups. There was criticism raised about the balance of their side, with Curran batting at seven in a bowling attack packed with allrounders.

Butcher was also critical of England’s preparation for the tournament, and their approach to playing on slower Indian pitches.

“Once the opposition have got them on the back foot it doesn’t look as though there is any way that they can stop it,” he said. “Harry Brook was starved of strike for a long time, you’ve got Liam Livingstone coming in behind him, they still had plenty of players who would have that absolute conviction [in their method] because that’s the only way they know how to play. I’m very reticent to blame it on a lack of intent from England. What I think is that there’s been is a little bit of hubris in terms of the types of cricket you need to play on these types of surfaces.

“I feel like there’s a bit of complacency, and you can say that with the way they built up to the tournament with players not playing and deciding not to play anybody in the Ireland series or whatever it might be. People not playing 50-over cricket at all, that’s our system at the moment, all we need to do is turn up, stick our chests out with the same attitude as we had under Eoin Morgan and everything else will fall into place – well it’s not quite as simple as that.”

England’s next match is against South Africa on Saturday, October 21. South Africa have been in impressive form, particularly with the bat, so far in the tournament. They hit the highest score in the tournament’s history in their first match against Sri Lanka, with Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram all scoring centuries. Markram’s innings was the fastest century ever in men’s ODI World Cups.

Looking ahead to what England’s potential lineup could be for that fixture, Butcher said: “I imagine what will happen is that Stokes will come back in, Curran will miss out for Stokes and Woakes will play again. He’s [Woakes] a big boy, he’s been around long enough, he will just have to turn it around…we will all be more than happy for him to have a great day out.

“But at the moment you look at it and just think ‘Oh my God’. They’re coming up against South Africa, who at the moment look like they’re scoring runs for fun. The game could be over before the powerplay if England end up bowling first.”

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