England vs Australia ODI Series: England Report Card

The only England player who enhanced his ODI reputation during the series

Andrew Strauss – Given a set of popguns to counter Australia’s big guns, his captaincy was as understated as ever – when winning, that approach can look like calm authority, but when losing, it looks like diffidence. Batted well, but, understandably after his workload this summer, couldn’t go on to make really big scores.

Ravi – The selectors have stuck with him admirably as he learns what international cricket is all about at the highest level. His continuing propensity to throw his wicket away needs sorting out very soon indeed or he’ll spend his career hammering county attacks and hoping for IPL contracts.

Matt Prior – Has played a lot of international cricket this year, all of it in the middle of the action and looks mentally fatigued. Needs to make big scores in ODI cricket if he is to bat in the top order – at Seven, 40 off 35 balls is good; it’s not good at Three.

Owais Shah – Good batsmen “book themselves in for bed and breakfast” – Shah always appears to be hailing a taxi. As a senior batsman, he radiates anxiety – excusable if you’re nervously making tons, but not when you don’t make fifty in seven innings. Terrible fielder for a professional cricketer.

Tim Bresnan – Chugged in to bowl slightly quicker than his approach suggested and made some useful runs in losing causes, but can you see him in a World Cup winning XI? No.

Eoin Morgan – Shows promise in the role of unorthodox middle order, middle overs run a ball merchant and deserves an extended run. Exactly the kind of player who would look good making 57 off 45 balls in a total of 290 – but how often do England make 290?

Ryan Sidebottom – Bowled some very handy late innings yorkers, but lacked penetration at the top of the innings. Must be close to being sent back to the counties for good.

Jimmy Anderson – Does he have enough weaponry to threaten good batsmen when conditions are not in his favour? Years of posing this question brings no closer to a definitive answer. A season or two in the IPL would accelerate his ODI nous, but who would have him?

Swanny – Bowled handily, indeed very well in the final match, but didn’t have the chance to influence matches when batting. Might need to think how best to use his personality in ODI cricket as he has done so successfully in Test cricket.

Colly – Took a mid-series break, a luxury rather dangerous for a man in his form to return for the final match of the series on his home ground. Adopting ugly, but effective, batting and bowling styles is fine if they are indeed effective – it’s not so fine when as ineffective as Colly has been in this series.

Luke Wright – Handy change bowler and handy biffer of ordinary bowling if found out by high quality stuff, he looks more a T20 man than an ODI player.

Joe Denly – Didn’t pull up any trees after his farcically delayed introduction after his football injury. Has the weight of shot so rare amongst English players, but needs to show that he can build match-winning innings.

Adil Rashid – Shows promise with the bat and the courage all leg-spinners need with the ball. Deserves better than being moved in and out of a side as poor as England’s – should really be told that he is Number 8 in ODIs no matter what the conditions and then we’ll see what he’s made of.

Stuart Broad – Like his captain, he had a good case for being given a bit of a break after Ashes heroics and got it with a fortuitously timed injury. Might need to be tried batting as a “wildcard” in the top six, as he can score very quickly once he has his eye in and, with his height, gives the bowler a real problem with length.

Dimi – Biggest hitter in this England squad, so hard to see why he only played two matches. His bowling won’t trouble the best, but can fill in four or five in the middle overs. Like Wright, he may well be a T20 man rather than an ODI player, but seems destined to be in and out of the ODI team.

Graham Onions – Brought in for a home ground match possibly to avoid too much bad feeling from the crowd if England went down to a 7-0 defeat. Might, like Hoggy, fail to broker a good Test career into a good ODI career.