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A below-par performance against Afghanistan ensured that England remained in the running for a World T20 semi-finals spot ahead of their clash against Sri Lanka at Firoz Shah Kotla.
Someone more pragmatic would say a win was all that was needed no matter how kludgy the performance, while someone with a contrasting view can probably sense the alarm bells ringing.
Not just because of England’s mental weakness against spin, but because of their tendency to make a pitch with minimal support for spin look like a rank turner.
Let’s be honest, Afghanistan have an unimpressive spin bowling attack and they shouldn’t really have given England’s now dynamic, aggressive and free-flowing generation of batsmen a problem. One would have expected England to ram home their advantage by brushing aside Afghanistan and improve their net run rate, but instead they lost six wickets inside ten overs.
It was up to Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan and David Willey to restore some order with a bit of common sense to give their team some breathing space. The bowlers then saved the day.
While you must give Eoin Morgan – who has long been due to make a vital contribution – and the boys some credit for the way they fought back, an honest assessment of their batting performance only attracts vituperation – a whole lot of it. If it was a blip, England must prove it against the reigning champions.
The key for England now lies in quickly dusting themselves off and preparing to lock horns against a team that loves to take pace off the ball. Generally, whenever England are subjected to slow(ish) bowling, they look for the boundary. Sri Lankan bowlers will be looking for mishits.
This is exactly why coaches lay down so much emphasis on strike rotation as that’s what an innings is built upon. Any top modern-day batsman, may it be Steven Smith, Joe Root or Virat Kohli, are all excellent at taking singles and doubles early on in the innings before they accelerate. England can probably learn a bit from Root and how he goes about his job, especially against slow bowling.
The bowlers, on the other hand, should try and emulate their performance against Afghanistan. They assessed the conditions very quickly and bowled accordingly. They were accurate, took good advantage of the conditions while both spinning and swinging the ball. With a similar track expected on Saturday, they could surely do with a repeat.
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