England crashed out of the Champions Trophy with a tense loss to Afghanistan, sealing their third disappointing exit from an ICC white-ball tournament in a row.
The result has raised questions over the future of the personnel in the side, most notably whether Jos Buttler's captaincy can survive another early tournament exit. However, after a glut of major tournaments, there is now a two-year break until the next 50-over competition, and a year until the next T20 World Cup.
Here are five areas England must improve in order to be competitive in the 2027 World Cup.
Middle-over muddle
One of the key points where England lost the games against both Afghanistan and Australia was in their bowling during the middle overs. In both matches, the combination of Joe Root, Liam Livingstone and whichever third pacer was playing was not enough to make key breakthroughs to prevent runs piling up at the back-end of the innings.
Against Australia, that left Josh Inglis still there at the end with plenty of wickets in hand to secure victory in a huge chase, while, against Afghanistan, it left Ibrahim Zadran free to break his own record for his country's highest-ever score in the format.
England have been searching for a bowler to replicate Liam Plunkett's metronomic mastery in the middle overs since they ousted him after the 2019 World Cup. Clearly, neither Brydon Carse nor Jamie Overton was the way to go in that regard on a Lahore surface. Despite Jofra Archer taking three wickets in the power play against Afghanistan, those efforts were not backed up when the fielding restrictions lifted, and Overton's length became predictable for Zadran first to tick the run rate over, and then to belt.
Without that problem solved, England will be vulnerable to sides racking huge totals against them, and chasing down whatever total is set.
England’s early exit from the 2025 Champions Trophy, was their ninth loss in ten matches with Brendon McCullum as white-ball coach.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) February 27, 2025
Serious questions must be asked about what he has brought to the setup so far, writes @Yas_Wisden.
Read here ➡️ https://t.co/hfUwwUx5id pic.twitter.com/j1BSlGiXWx
Spinner solution
Both in the series against India and against Afghanistan, England were ripped through time and time again by a variety of spinners. In response, Rashid as ever, produced deliveries of his own mastery to hold his own. However, he was exclusively the only specialist spinner in the XI, with back-up duties falling to the part-timers. Livingstone has been particularly useful in that regard, but it's hard to ignore England's need for another specialist for much longer.
Despite carrying him around India with them, Rehan Ahmed did not feature in a single ODI this winter. Although clearly their preferred option for the future given the amount of investment in him, his next opportunity in the format will be at least 18 months after his last ODI. The issue is more pressing as Rashid's future grows shorter. He turned 37 days before the Champions Trophy started, and will be months away from his 40th birthday at the next World Cup. How the transition from England's most successful white-ball spinner of all time is handled will be a key theme of the next two years.
All-rounder absence
After the Australia loss, Nasser Hussain highlighted the absence of Ben Stokes as key to England's issues in balancing their 50-over side. While not the predominant reason they crashed out of the tournament so spectacularly, not having a bowling option in the top six clearly hurt them. Buttler and McCullum chose to play the extra batter and back four bowlers and two part timers to be enough with the runs a longer batting lineup could bring. That was proved unstable when Australia were able to chase down 352 with 15 balls to spare.
While the potency of their bowlers can be questioned, along with the plans they bowled to, the best one-day sides have someone with the ability to bowl a full quota of overs in the top six. Without this, England will always look light somewhere and have a structural weakness teams will look to exploit.
Opening problems
Ben Duckett has rapidly ascended to become one of England's best batters in the 50-over format. His century against Australia was the highpoint of a dismal subcontinent winter, and it's not hard to see how ODIs are arguably the format he's most suited to. However, in all-but one of their ODIs over the last month, their No.3 has been in during the powerplay.
Phil Salt's dismissals have become more and more predictable with each innings, summarised when he was out heaving across the line in the fourth over of the 300 plus chase against Afghanistan. When Salt hasn't been guilty of those kinds of dismissals, Duckett has. Finding a way to build big opening partnerships and take the pressure off the middle-order will be essential.
Tempo troubles
The most dominant criticism of England over the last month has been how much they've struggled to strike the right tempo as a batting unit. Characteristic of this were Jamie Smith's two dismissals after he was declared fit to play in Pakistan. Against Australia, Smith lasted 13 balls before he fell trying to clear mid on for the second time in three balls. In the Afghanistan match, he was again out to his 13th ball at the crease, this time charging down to the first ball he faced from Mohammad Nabi.
Buttler described Smith's promotion to No.3 a "a free hit", perhaps indicating the difficulties England have had matching up 50-over tempo to the diet of T20 their players largely operate on. There were other examples too, in Harry Brook's difficulties rotating the strike against quality spin, Livingstone being caught in between innings finisher and innings builder, as well as Buttler's own continued poor record in ODIs in the subcontinent.
Regardless of the structural problems which are for higher ups to level with, England must find a batting lineup capable of constructing a 50-over innings to re-find their best.
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
