It’s been less than a year since England performed a whole set of mental gymnastics to keep Harry Brook on the fringes of their World Cup plans.
Overlooked in the initial squad before becoming the first man to be let go once Ben Stokes returned to full fitness, the misuse of England’s golden boy summed up a broader malaise and a management lacking conviction.
Fast forward 10 months and even in defeat, England have their mojo back and Brook is at the heart of the renaissance. A group of players so inexperienced that even by the end of the series Adil Rashid remains the squad’s leading ODI run-scorer have gone toe-to-toe with the world champions, successfully ending their run of 14 wins on the trot and once again threatening the enormous scores that defined England’s 2015-2019 spell of ODI dominance. For the first time since Eoin Morgan retired, this resembled a Morgan team. Not in terms of personnel but in spirit. There is a calculated aggression and cohesion about them, and that conviction in their method has returned.
Take Phil Salt’s series as an example. On paper, he had a has had a middling series at best. Ninety-six runs from five hits is an objectively underwhelming set of numbers. But he clearly stuck to his brief – get England off to a flyer.
Such was the ferocity of his opening burst at Bristol, he bought time for his teammates to get their eyes in. While Salt was in destruction mode, Duckett was just playing himself in at the other end. By the time Salt was dismissed on 45, England had 58 on the board from seven overs with Duckett just getting going with 13 off his first 15 deliveries.
Duckett then took Salt’s dismissal as the cue to go on the attack himself – the diminutive left-hander duly took 12 off the eighth over of the innings, the first after Salt’s departure. Similarly, Salt's early pyrotechnics took the pressure off his captain when he started his own innings. Brook’s final analysis of 72 off 52 is made all the more remarkable given the sedateness of his start – after 20 deliveries, he had just milked his way to nine. Salt will clearly need to better capitalise on those fast starts going forward but the foundations are there for a new look top order that complements each other.
That’s not to say that they have totally cracked the code. For starters, they need to rid the habit of gifting middle-order wickets to part-time spin. Like at Southampton, England made a meal of an outstanding start. On 202-3 at the halfway point, the game was at their mercy. But to blame their collapse on their approach would be overly simplistic – Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell all succumbed while playing either defensive or strike-rotational strokes. The ease at which Australia motored along in the run chase also suggests England were right to target a score in excess of 350 at a venue that has one of the smaller playing areas in the country.
England are clearly some way off being the finished article but they have made strides over the course of the series. Duckett and Brook were both outstanding with the bat while there were kernels of optimism to be found in the performances of the seam attack.
So what next for England? If there are no changes in personnel over the next few months, they will have a different captain and different coach by the Champions Trophy in early 2025. Would a return to Jos Buttler be a backwards step? Or at least run the risk of losing momentum generated against Australia?
There was a clarity to England’s cricket this series that has often been missing from Buttler’s occasionally listless team over the past 18 months. Even with the likely returns of Buttler, Stokes and Joe Root, the core of the ODI side is changing – it would perhaps benefit from a leader unburdened by previous hardships.
Brook has taken the additional responsibility of captaincy in his stride, assuredly dealing with the fall-out his post-game comments in Southampton provoked. Like with Stokes with the Test side in 2022, his own batting has been arguably the most effective medium of communication in articulating how he wants his side to play. The fear with any new captain is whether or not they will be encumbered by the job. Brook looks to be empowered by it if anything, something that cannot really be said about Buttler at any point of his reign.
There’s a pragmatic angle to it, too. This is a fresh side for whom the Champions Trophy comes early in their cycle. The real target should be the 2027 World Cup in South Africa by which time Buttler will be 37. And given the frequency of T20 World Cups, there is no urgency to make a change to the leadership of the T20I side. Brook could replace Buttler at the helm of one format without shaking the boat or calling time on his England captaincy for good.
The start of the McCullum white-ball era feels like an opportune time to mix things up and maintain the injection of energy and optimism England have found against Australia. Yes, the series has ended in defeat but they fared admirably against a grisled, world-class Australian side with a group of players attuning to a format they rarely play. Giving Brook control of the 50-over side would be a step forward after a few years of inertia.
