England left to rue lazy selection decision after lost series in Bangladesh
“That’s easy to say [call up another player]’ said Jos Buttler, England captain. “But we have a lot of really strong all-rounders and there are a number of people who are unavailable for the Tour for various reasons. As opposed to bringing someone else into the game, we’re giving the all-rounders a chance to push a little harder and take on more responsibility, and they’re guys who will face those conditions at the Worlds later this year. That is the thinking.”
In the first game, Buttler went 67, but when he was dismissed, the innings fell away badly. For the second match, they changed the order, to no avail. After Buttler lost the toss for the eighth time in eight games that year, Dawid Malan was promoted to his preferred opener position but fell in the third over. Moeen Ali climbed to 3rd and Buttler, the world’s top T20 starter, slipped to 4th: England had compromised a strength to bridge a weakness.
“I’m very comfortable batting anywhere in the order, I’ve also spent a hell of a lot of my career playing midfield and I think we have some good options,” said Buttler, again without regret.
“We had a bank of left-handers there all together, so just to break that up and ask a few different questions of the opposition. I don’t think I would change it with hindsight, it’s easy to tell when things aren’t going the way you want. I thought that was a good option today with those spinning wickets, having left and right handed a bit mixed might have been a good option.”
England are simply a batsman light. They were fine for six overs and reached 50 with Malan as their only loss. But once Bangladesh’s array of spinners, led by the tricky Mehidy, got going – just as he did in 2016 friendlies against England – they found themselves in a bind on a spinning field. Phil Salt was out again to make way for Shakib al-Hasan; Moeen holed out while Buttler got a toe-crushing Yorker from Hasan Mahmud. Mehidy picked up Sam Curran and Chris Woakes, both clueless, then Chris Jordan holed out.
It was curious that debutant Rehan Ahmed, who became England’s youngest-ever men’s T20 player (a record he also holds in Tests and ODIs), failed to finish 9th and only threw two overs. He hit two boundaries – only Salt managed more – and took a wicket; The swagger and carelessness of youth might have been helpful in this crisis. Ahmed and Ben Duckett, famished after the strike, put England in the final when the last three wickets were promptly lost, two of them to run out.
It’s not just selection and order that England get wrong. They don’t rotate the shot well enough or work out when to move from cautious warm-up to calculated risk. Buttler says they have to “beat without ego.”
Buttler only rated 117 as “15 to 20 short” and he was right about Archer in that form. He took a wicket on the power play and, conveniently north of 90mph, two more on death to keep England’s hopes alive.
England’s shortage of racquets has left them bowling in abundance, with Woakes and Jordan only surviving one bowl each, and Ahmed also underutilized. Jordan got by in 19th, with Bangladesh needing 13 balls from 12 following Archer’s outstanding performance. They only needed five of those 12 deliveries, three of which went to the fence.