The problem with England's one-day batting

There's a lot to like about the English style of playing cricket. Most young batsmen who make it to the England Test team have decent techniques and, invariably, the temperament suited to succeed in the longer format. Most bowlers have their basics right too, partly because they play a lot of four-day county cricket.

Unfortunately, though, their approach to the 50-over game is 20 years behind most of the rest of the world. Many reasons have been put forth to explain this: that they don't play enough ODIs (valid, for England play about as many ODIs in a year as most other teams do in three months); that conditions in England aren't conducive to scoring 300-plus (only partially valid: the second half of the English summer usually produces some of the flattest pitches around); that they don't play much domestic 50-overs cricket, so players don't know how to pace an ODI innings (invalid, for no international cricketer gets the time to play in his country's domestic one-day tournaments).

Many England batsmen have a marked reluctance to play off the front foot to fast bowlers and spinners. The No. 1 tenet of batting in limited-overs cricket is to score off every ball, so most batsmen are looking to get on the front foot more often than not. At least that's what the coaches tell you to prepare for, irrespective of the format: always look for the full ball, more so in England.

In the summer of 2004, I went to play league cricket in England. Since I had already played Test cricket for India, the expectations of scoring tons of runs every weekend were high. But while I managed to score a reasonable number of runs, my performances were nowhere close to where they should have been, and that's when I understood an important lesson about batting on English pitches.

While you must play the ball on its merit everywhere in the world, the definition of merit changes from country to country. In India there is little use in pulling a slightly short-of-length ball. Instead, you must go forward to such deliveries. But in Perth or Brisbane, you mustn't commit yourself to the front foot while facing such deliveries.

On English pitches, no matter how fast the bowler and how strong the temptation to get on the back foot, you must look to come forward. The ball swings in the air and seams a little more off the surface than elsewhere, so it is important to lunge forward and reduce the distance the ball has to travel to impact. The longer the ball spends in the air, the more it moves. The slowness of the pitches might tempt you to play off the back foot, but you need to resist it.

Considering the experience I acquired over five English summers, it surprises me that English batsmen don't step forward more often in international cricket. Most prefer to operate with both feet inside the box in all forms of the game. Such an approach might be understandable against fast bowlers, but playing spin is about reaching the pitch of the ball. Going deep inside the box is an option only when you have forced the bowler to shorten his length.

There are two typical English responses to a spinner: one, sweep (orthodox or reverse), and two, go deep inside the box to score runs. Rarely do you see an English batsman use his feet to get to the pitch of the ball, or use his wrists to put the ball in gaps while lunging forward.

Singles are the lifeblood of one-day cricket, and if you haven't mastered taking them, you're doomed. Also, if the sweep is your preferred shot for taking singles or scoring boundaries, you are flirting with danger too often. It doesn't come as a surprise that since 2011, England batsmen top the list of total number of dismissals while sweeping against the spin.

Their lack of understanding of how to pace an ODI innings is evident in the way they build when batting first. They don't push to score an extra 25 runs possible, which means they are best off bowling first always, since having a target to chase forces them to play a slightly more adventurous brand of cricket than they otherwise do.

Another aspect of the English approach to one-day cricket that stands out is the tendency to pick players who can do a bit of this and a bit of that over specialists. They play batsmen like Moeen Ali and Ravi Bopara, who can bowl a bit, and bowlers like Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan, who can bat a bit. While most teams are shelving the allrounder option unless they have a Kallis or a Watson, England are heading in the opposite direction.

Finally, their one-day captain Eoin Morgan's tactics against Australia in the tri-series were seriously flawed. He allowed the final to drift when Australia were on the mat. Watching England in the field gives you a sense that they have signed a bond to finish game in the final over and not a minute sooner. Once the opposition is at 60 for 4, it's difficult to fathom why you wouldn't want to wrap the innings up as soon as possible. England sacked Alastair Cook to improve their World Cup chances but that's unlikely to change their fortunes much. It's their approach that needs to be chucked immediately.