Come together

Another game, another loss. 3-0 down with four to play, England need a miracle. Failing that, what can be divined from what we have seen so far, apart from the obvious fact that India are a lot better?

At least the third game wasn’t quite as embarrassing as the previous two. If they continue to improve at this rate, they might win a game before the series is out. It is frustrating because the players in the team are actually pretty good. Individually, these boys can play: where it goes wrong is when they all have to do it together, because the team does not know how to function collectively.

That is not an allegation that the team is faction-ridden or fighting amongst themselves – they at least appear to be a harmonious bunch – but that the cogs of the machine rarely mesh together and produce something more than a bunch of independently-spinning axles.

But I am convinced that each individual in the England team is a good enough player. Changing the personnel is unlikely to have much effect (although I have no idea at all why Alastair Cook is in the one-day squad). The selectors should now leave well enough alone and let them work out how to win a game which is not at Chester-le-Street or The Oval.

The one possible exception is Monty Panesar, who is now in India but not officially part of the squad.

However, I don’t see him providing any useful answers. That he cannot bat is not the problem: at worst we end up with a tail of Harmison, Anderson and Monty. That he is feeble in the field is something of a problem, but it ought not to be beyond the wit of the rest of the bowlers not to bowl lines and lengths which encourage the batsmen to hit it in his direction all the time. The real problem is that he is so slow to learn anything.

In Kanpur, Harbhajan effectively throttled England’s middle order by bowling differently to the way he had at Indore, and he will no doubt bowl yet differently in Bangalore because he will be able to read the pitch and the situation when he bowls and produce something appropriate. The chance of Panesar being able to emulate that is zero. At least Swann has some chance of doing so, even if he is much less of a bowler to start with.

So what hope is there for the line-up we saw today? Some, if you ask me, though I don’t claim to know anything much about 50-over cricket.

KP chose not to follow the advice I proffered in my last post but did the next best thing by promoting Bopara to open. He may have no experience of it at county level, but anyone who can get a double hundred in a 50-over game has to be worth a go, and today’s effort makes it a good move. But Bell seems to have taken some notice, so I will desist from sharpening the axe I was threatening to bring down on his neck.

I am agnostic about the captain dropping Shah to six and going in at three himself. I’m not sure how much more Pietersen offers than Shah: Owais is a faster starter than KP and would do more to keep up momentum when a wicket falls early, but KP would be the first to 70 assuming either of them get there.

I suppose there’s enough evidence that improvement is possible to make it worth watching on Sunday. At least it’s on at a less unsociable time.