The Gillette series review
Australia had won the Ashes convincingly 4-0. The ODI series started after 7 days, and one understandably thought the result would be the same.
However that did not happen as England won the 5 game series(first 3 excitingly) 4-1. Winning compellingly!.
After WC 2015 England had greatly improved their performance(65.51% ) in limited overs cricket. They are led by Eoin Morgan whose leadership is wonderful to watch. They prefer chasing (71.42%) and rely heavily on the top order to chase down any target.
However a team requires more than that to become a champion. All the pieces has to be placed in right place to be successfully executed, and England are yet to be there, but have the confidence to walk that path.
Their first challenge would be to strengthen their overall batting – viz bat first in all condition and try to score enough for their bowlers to defend.
The next World Cup is played at home. The weather, the surface and home crowd expectation are 3 things they cannot control, hence the thought.
Australia the current World Cup holder and 5 times champions are having a very ordinary time post WC 2015 , winning 49.09% of their total ODIs. Their recent performance is very poor, 30.00% since Jan 2017.
Below table is snapshot of their performance post WC 2015 and most recent games(Jan 2017 onwards). As one can clearly see the success England is having in last 12 months, either setting or chasing targets. Australia on the other hand are having a nightmare of a time in this format, probably their worst phase in last 2 decades.
This series loss(1-4) to England is their 3rd consecutive loss(4 successive) since Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in NZ, Jan 2017. From that period they have won only 2 in 16 ODIs!.
England won the Gillette series convincingly, 4-1. They used 14 players for 5 games, and Australia 16 players. Interestingly apart from No.5 position, Australia used different player for every batting position!. Nevertheless it is their bowling not their batting that cost them the series.
In the World Cup their bowling run rate was 5.07- now they are almost 6 (5.62) – Batting wise 6.84 during WC 2015, now it is gone down to 5.77.
Below gfx is a comparison(batting v bowling) of their run rate since Jan 2017
Below is statistical analysis of Gillette series.
All data updated at end of Gillette series.