Rob Key: England overthought important decisions and suffered from a lack of local knowledge

England won the toss in seven out of their nine matches in India. Each time they opted to field first – against Afghanistan, South Africa, India and Australia – they lost. The defeat to South Africa, where they bowled first on a piping hot day in Mumbai drew the most scrutiny as England folded for just 170 in response to the Proteas’ mammoth score of 399. Key suggested that England were, at times, guilty of overthinking decisions that were potentially more straightforward than they made out.

“You look at the way that the last couple of games we played, if we won the toss, we had a bat,” Key said. “We didn’t know that at the start. We weren’t married to a way of what was our best way to go about things and that was due at times to a lot of overthinking. We almost probably felt like we’ve got a good understanding of things here, when the dew comes down and then it actually becomes easier to bat.

“But that wasn’t the case if you didn’t get through to the dew, if you were six or seven down by that time. So I think we underestimated how tough it was going to be in those conditions and we got a lot wrong. When you get to somewhere like Mumbai, and it all seems so simple now, you’re worried about dew and all of this stuff.

“I hold myself accountable for a lot of it really. I’ve set up a coaching team that had no local experience, really. Actually someone who knows these conditions really well says ‘By the way, it’s hotter than the sun out there; make sure you have a bat’. We got so caught up in what was going to happen five or six hours down the line.”

England won three of the five games in which they batted first, including their final two fixtures against Netherlands and Pakistan. Despite historically being their stronger suit, England have registered just one successful ODI run chase against a Full Member nation since July 2021.