Watching the opening one-day international the other day I had the feeling that I had seen all of this before.
Not the tourists getting a good hammering (hopefully that should prevent any comments to that end, fingers crossed) but the way they went about their business, and primarily with the approach of the respective top orders.
In the 50-over format I’m not sure that there is a great deal between the two sides, but I’m talking about from the top three down.
At the risk of simplifying the argument, England are employing a tactic that, especially in the southern hemisphere, is outdated and if a first World Cup success is really their ultimate aim, will put a real downer on their chances.
The Swann household first had satellite television in 1992 with the dish being installed in time for the start of the World Cup on Australian and New Zealand soil.
Giving the highlights shows a wide berth, the Swann brothers routinely spent half the night on the couch watching the carnival unfold and I can still recall, with some clarity, players such as Mark Greatbatch, Brian Lara, Jonty Rhodes, Wasim Akram and Neil Fairbrother to name a few, strutting their stuff.
But even though that was only two decades in the past, the 50-over format nowadays is another game entirely with the batting side of things taking on a far more aggressive manner.
No longer do players seek to emulate the likes of Geoff Marsh or Andrew Hudson by batting through the innings, hoping to make a century or fractionally more while those at the other end made the most of the platform created.
The principle of doubling whatever has been posted by the 30th over may ring true to some degree, but it is the way sides choose to get there which has altered dramatically.
And this is where England are living in the past.
For the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, the English opted to revert to this style after a few failed attempts at a more aggressive mindset and it just didn’t work.
With no Marcus Trescothick, the one player who could marry a decent technique with the ability to score quickly, out of the equation, circumspection was preferred to adventure with the outcome being all too predictable.
Skip forward almost seven years to the encounter at the MCG the other day and it was clear to see that not a great deal has changed.
Alastair Cook and Ian Bell are fine players, albeit in no kind of form, however, the chances of them supplying consistently explosive starts are very slim.
Add to the mix Joe Root, again a good batsman in his own right, but a mirror of the aforementioned pair and issues are being formed where they needn’t be.
This trio aren’t beyond providing a base for a strong total and given enough opportunity such instances will present themselves, yet it isn’t too difficult to come to the conclusion that England are, for want of a better description, pissing into the wind.
Cricket, especially in this format, has moved on and England need to move with the times, they only have to look at the top three fielded by Australia to see what one-day cricket in 2014 is all about.
Powerful, aggressive boundary hitting is the modus operandi of the better sides and while perfect emulation is often tricky to apply, a few pointers can at least be taken.
David Warner, whose batting I’m grudgingly admiring more and more, and Aaron Finch are, in a nutshell, the template for an opening partnership.
Force versus guile if you like and any law of averages would suggest, if the individual players are good enough, that the former will better the latter.
Fifty-over cricket, with the change in rules, provides a 10-over powerplay at the start of an innings and, with wickets in hand, the equivalent for the final 15 overs.
To clog us forty per-cent of these is either stubborn or foolhardy and if England want to make their mark then this attitude has to fall by the wayside.
A case can be made in England when two new balls, in early season at least, necessitate some degree of caution, but everywhere else demands pro-action as opposed to reaction.
To stick is to to invite stagnation and should the status quo persist, the World Cup in a year’s time won’t be where England rule the roost.
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