FROM the moment that Eoin Morgan retired, it was over. Morgan has led the transformation of the England One Day Teams and achieved what some of England’s greatest Captains failed to do in winning the World Cup. If the creation of the new team in 2015 was a joint venture with Trevor Bayliss and Sir Andrew Strauss, it was Morgan who set the example on the field.
Perhaps it was over from the moment that Jos Buttler broke the stumps at the end of the World Cup Final. Let’s face it – that team has never played together again. That was also when Bayliss stepped away. Since then England’s results have not been quite as good but they needed Morgan to get the team through Covid. By the time of the T20 World Cup last year, he was blocking a slot in the team and not giving the performance required. As his batting fell away, he was not able to set the same leadership example with that bat, and it became about words and culture. Indeed, Morgan’s values became a bit too dominant at times with the strange treatment of Dawid Malan and the refusal to move on with Alex Hales. In my opinion, Morgan should have retired sooner, but it is easy to say – you are a long-time retired. He is gone now. Buttler and Moeen Ali need to make decisions and not just ‘do what Eoin would do‘. Of course, they would all be aligned in many ways, but Buttler has to show his own true colours.
England has not done transitions well. Duncan Fletcher tried to replicate the 2005 team in 2006/07 and it led to a predictable 5-0 Ashes thrashing. The 2013 England Test Match Team imploded in a spectacular way. Even those few teams that manage success over many years change. The West Indies bowling attack had to accommodate the retirement of the fearsome foursome (Holding, Garner, Croft Roberts became Ambrose, Walsh, Marshall and Patterson). Australia went from Taylor, Slater, Boon, Jones, S Waugh, Border to Haydon, Langer, Ponting, Martyn, Clarke, Symonds).
What unites those two great sides of the past is that they ruthlessly picked the best players. Australia had to drop Michael Slater to create the Matthew Hayden / Justin Langer partnership and had to drop Ian Healy to allow Adam Gilchrist into the team.
England will need to do the same thing, and cannot ignore all the talent that was evident in the T20 Blast and The Hundred (Salt, Smeed and Jacks come to mind). Jason Roy has to get back into the runs, Liam Livingstone has to make meaningful scores and the bowlers have to tighten up or be changed. Even Adil Rashid is not quite the bowler he was.
In some ways, Ben Stokes has got the easier gig. It is perhaps easier to take over a failing team. However, I am not convinced by Buttler the Captain, and wonder if Moeen would be a better option. With Buttler I am reminded of Marcus Trescothick, who was passed over in 2003 when the England Captaincy went from Nasser Hussain to Michael Vaughan. Looking back now, it is clear that Vaughan was a good Captain, but he would not have coped well as a Deputy. Trescothick was the ideal deputy, but not the leader.
Buttler might yet prove me wrong, but he needs to step out of Morgan’s shadow. Moeen has a chance to turn things around, and if he was to do so it would be an interesting dilema. But difficult decisions might be needed to avoid another transitional failure by England.
Cricketed 