Mark Butcher has stated that 50-over is the hardest format of cricket to play as a batter and that the current crop of England ODI players are not yet experienced enough to be successful.
Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast following England's win against Australia in Durham, Butcher praised Harry Brook and Will Jacks' performances in the game. Brook scored his first ODI century as England won by 47 runs on DLS, and Will Jacks scored 84 off 82 balls in a 156-run partnership.
Butcher: Fifty-over cricket is the most difficult format to get the balance right
However, Butcher went on to question whether the squad's experience in the format would make it harder for them to produce those kinds of results on a consistent basis. "This England batting lineup is very inexperienced in the format, let alone internationally," said Butcher. "It takes a little bit of time before that game management, that knowledge of: When is the right time to press? When is it important that we hold a bit? Is it absolutely critical that wickets being blown away, trying to smash it out of the park left, right and centre is not a good idea?
"All of these things need to be taken into calculation. So I think the 50-over game in itself is very exposing of that inexperience, particularly when your method is going to be sound the bugle and charge from ball one. It's a long old time to bat."
"50-over cricket to me is, perhaps, the most difficult format to judge, or to get the balance right between the importance of losing wickets, having wickets in hand and scoring rates. In T20 cricket, generally speaking, there's not enough time for the game to swing backwards and forwards enough to have to worry too much about whether you get out or not.
"Clearly there are small moments at the back-end of games, perhaps, but not very often. In Test match cricket you can take the decision, if wickets have been lost and you're trying to rebuild, you can do that without any time pressure in terms of your scoring rate. In 50-over cricket, you have to make all of those judgements throughout the course of 50 overs."
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England are without Jos Buttler for the entirety of their series against Australia due to injury, and chose not to select both Moeen Ali, Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow, the former two of whom have both since retired from international cricket. Brook is captaining the side in Buttler's absence, despite having only played 15 matches before the start of the series.
Jacob Bethell has made his debut during the series, with Jordan Cox and John Turner both uncapped members of the squad. Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Jamie Smith, Olly Stone and Ben Duckett all have a handful of ODI caps each. They also have limited experience in List A cricket compared to previous generations.
Butcher: These players might be ready in four or five years
In the first two ODIs, England struggled to handle Australia's attack. They collapsed twice, first when faced with spin in the opening match of the series and then to Australia's pacers in the second. Following the second ODI, Brook was criticised for his post-match comments, where he said: "If you get caught somewhere on the boundary or in the field, then who cares?"
Australia’s Headingley victory handed England their 10th loss in 14 ODIs, a slump dating back to their rocky 2023 World Cup defence.
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"Yes you need guys who can put their foot down and yes you want to be able to reach 350, 360 when you can," said Butcher. "But more often than not when that's not possible you have to be able to really read conditions, read the game, read risk and play accordingly. So it's a tightrope that England are trying to walk at the moment, off the back of losing a lot of the experienced players, having a lot of inexperienced players in and trying to play this gung-ho style of cricket that I'm not sure they're ready to do on a regular basis and be successful.
"They might be in about four or five years if they haven't annoyed everybody so much that they all get sacked. But at the moment they're not ready to do it and they might not be quite good enough to play in a conservative way either. So you're going to get these fluctuations where they win a game with 10 overs to spare, or they lose a game with 10 overs to spare. There won't be a great deal in between."
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