"LetrCOs start by making one thing clear. EnglandrCOs T20 World Cup pulverising
of Australia will have absolutely no bearing on the Ashes, a series played in a different format, by numerous different players, on surfaces the other side of the globe to the UAE.
What it has done instead, is show in big, bold type how much the white-ball paths of Australia and England have diverged in the six years since a team then led by stand-in captain George Bailey rCo now AustraliarCOs selection chair rCo did a similar job on England in the opening match of the 2015 ODI World Cup at a heaving MCG.
That game underlined why England had to go away and formulate a new, much more vigorous and fearless approach to white-ball cricket. To do so they leaned heavily on the strong views of their captain Eoin Morgan and the assistance of a free-thinking Australian coach in Trevor Bayliss.
At the same time, the ECB made a deliberate choice to prioritise shorter formats with a view to winning the 2019 World Cup and others beyond it. Careful accumulation and percentage play was out; rCyrCytake the game onrCOrCO
aggression and initiative was in.
Six years on, Morgan still carries the leadership flame of this approach to an extent that it visibly liberates and invigorates England players who
take part in it.
Look at Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, both missing from the long form of the game, but contributing well as ever at this World Cup. Look too at Liam Livingstone, who contributed the four part-time overs that a more free-thinking Australia might have been able to target, but instead were
the most parsimonious of the entire innings. Moeen, meanwhile, was unperturbed to sit out his bowling spell, as Morgan said.
It was a lack of trust in Glenn Maxwell or Marcus Stoinis to do a similar job that saw Mitchell Marsh dropped mid-tournament, after so much
investment in him this year as a solid member of the Australian batting line-up.
Without Marsh, Maxwell had to bat higher, leaving him vulnerable to the new ball in the hands of Chris Woakes rCo another player who has grown noticeably
since Morgan and Bayliss tilted EnglandrCOs approach.
EnglandrCOs philosophy is now so strong and clearly defined that, as Morgan pointed out, the squad selected for the World Cup has been able to form a cohesive and powerful unit even though they have seldom played together lately rCo supposedly the big reason why Australia were so shabby.
Instead, it is the crystal clear understanding of how this England team works, thinks and expects that means all players contribute more than their individual value might otherwise be. ThatrCOs true even of a talent as outlandish as Jos ButtlerrCOs.
That kind of ethos, where opponents struggle to rCyrCytargetrCOrCO favourable
match-ups because England are strong at every rung of their teamrCOs ladder, is reminiscent of the great Australian sides of the late 1990s and early 2000s and, briefly, the combination that thrived at the 2015 World Cup.
Bailey was a superb interim captain whenever Michael Clarke was
unavailable, the bowlers worked in concert to such an extent that a younger Pat Cummins was required to play only a supporting role, and James Faulkner and Maxwell produced performances they seldom matched in national colours either before or since. What England have, then, is a clarity of mind and a quality of performance that Australia, at least in white-ball cricket, can only wonder at. Should they, having prioritised Test cricket so much more than England in recent years, stumble on the Ashes stage also, it would
mean three losing home summers in four years. That is one area where events in UAE would be related to those in the Ashes rCo such a sequence would make it well and truly time for the same sort of introspection and strategic rethinking.
Australia host next yearrCOs World Cup. In order to win it, they will need to
derive a lot more of their approach from the sort of thinking encouraged by Morgan than some of the muddled efforts seen in the early hours of Sunday morning."
Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, November 01, 2021
It's no coincidence that Daniel is an anagram of 'denial'. Even though Brettig has moved from the wasteland of cricket.com.au to the Sinney
Morning Herald his belief that no NSW player is ever to blame for an Oz defeat remains rock-solid.
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