Jos has big job on hand

England have looked surprisingly tentative and Buttler now has the difficult leadership task of galvanising his team. This will be a demanding test as both his batting and wicketkeeping have been disappointing so far

Each 50-over men’s World Cup provides its share of surprises but I wasn’t expecting two favourites in England and Australia to be struggling to keep their head above water.

England’s loss to Afghanistan was a huge upset and it means they now have to be near flawless to qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament. This won’t be easy as they face some tough encounters.

Australia’s batting was dismal in their two lacklustre losses, but they at least showed improvement in beating Sri Lanka and Pakistan. However, Australia’s inability to cope effectively with good spin bowling was no great surprise, but it did confirm their deficiencies. This signal is not one to send their more fancied opponents. However, it was their shoddy fielding that stood out in Australia’s losses and this often relates to a loss of confidence.

Back-to-back wins for Oz

Australia were able to regain their poise in claiming back-to-back victories and those wins came via a much-needed improvement in both pace and spin bowling and encouragingly against Pakistan, a mammoth opening partnership. The scintillating form of both David Warner and Mitchell Marsh provides a huge fillip to their prospects.

If Australia’s fielding had been shoddy, Pakistan’s was absolutely abysmal and left them with a tough qualifying proposition. Australia, on the other hand, are talented enough to make the semi-finals but the major concern is their frailty in coping with good spin bowling.

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England’s bowling has generally been profligate and their out-and-out speedster Mark Wood deserves an opportunity to use the new ball. The most impressive aspect of Afghanistan’s victory was their attacking attitude and ample spin bowling threat.

Afghanistan here to compete

I first met the Afghanistan players in the Caribbean during the 2010 T20 World Cup. It was there that they expressed the sentiment; “We are not here to just make up the numbers.”

While this is a regularly muttered but not necessarily meant sentiment, the Afghanistan team—although short on batting talent—lived up to that impressive approach on the field.

They’ve since added to their batting skill whilst retaining their aggressive attitude. Their spinners attacked, looking for English wickets and they were backed by thoughtful field placings to support those efforts. When you compare the positive Afghanistan attitude with the often disappointing negativity that surrounds Bangladesh’s performance, it’s a case of chalk and cheese.

England have looked surprisingly tentative and Jos Buttler now has the difficult leadership task of galvanising his team. This will be a demanding test as both his batting and ’keeping have been disappointing so far, along with a lack of Eoin Morgan-like leadership aptitude.

It was a matter of when, not if South Africa would falter at a 50-over World Cup—it’s their history. The fact that it came against the Netherlands with their sketchy South African link only added to the drama.

Both India and New Zealand have produced the right ingredients for success in the tournament. The two teams have individuals performing effectively in both run-scoring and wicket-taking. 

The injury to Hardik Pandya is a major concern to the otherwise in-form India who will anxiously hope the vital all-rounder still has a role to play in the tournament.

The early stages of the tournament have involved a lot of pushing and shoving, but we now enter the do-or-die stage of the World Cup.

Those early stages have demonstrated how upsets influence the latter stages of the tournament. However, apart from New Zealand’s perennial ability to punch above their weight in World Cups, it should concern the ICC that the financial heavyweights are once again flexing their muscles when it matters most.

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