The man with the most to ponder while sifting through the wreckage of England’s Champions Trophy campaign has already fled the scene.
Rob Key, England’s managing director of men’s cricket, was on a flight home within five hours of Afghanistan’s eight-run victory earlier this week.
The 45-year-old’s departure was in keeping with his schedule and not made in disgust at the squad. There has been no back-stabbing or name-calling, despite the results which led Jos Buttler to quit as captain on Friday. Whoever takes over inherits a happy camp.
In contrast to the end of the 2021-22 Ashes, when the touring party became splintered and cliques emerged, this white-ball side have a ‘no blame culture’ fostered by coach Brendan McCullum.
Key sampled the atmosphere before flying back to London, and will have noted that the players remained united behind Buttler. One of the reasons Mark Wood, his knee re-strapped, returned to bowl four overs through the pain in Lahore in midweek was a debt he felt to his captain and the team.
Such commitment emphasises how tight they have become. They hit the gym, golf course and bar together, and contrary to Ravi Shastri’s observation, they train hard, too. The question is: have they become too cosy? While the environment might sound idyllic for most aspiring international cricketers, is it one capable of including all kinds of personalities?
Jos Buttler’s side crashed out of the Champions Trophy in rapid time, leading to his resignation
Managing director Rob Key (left) departed Pakistan within five hours of England’s loss on Wednesday, while Brendon McCullum also has questions to answer for their failings
England remain a united front, but there are worries that the team has become too cosy
You don’t have to be bosom buddies with your colleagues to thrive in the workplace. Indeed, there is an argument the current set-up lacks the creative tension that has run through England’s best teams.
Few who shared a dressing room with Kevin Pietersen would deny that he was a difficult character. Equally, none would deny his level of influence when England sealed a first global trophy in 2010 or sat atop the world Test rankings for the one and only time the following year.
Andrew Flintoff had a strained relationship with Duncan Fletcher, a coach who had his favourites. It did not stymie their respective contributions to the common goal of beating Australia during the glorious summer of 2005.
Equally Jonny Bairstow, a player whose exploits helped christen Bazball three years ago, takes some managing. He appears to have become persona non grata despite having eight months of a central contract left to run. Sam Curran and Will Jacks are others to have been cast aside in the streamlining of England’s pool.
The kinship among that reduced number has been evident in training sessions littered with laughter these past six weeks in India and Pakistan, invariably beginning with PIG, their favourite football keepie-uppie game.
In another team-bonding exercise, sides divided down north-south lines hurtled around the outfield trying to catch tennis balls launched into orbit by a racket-wielding McCullum after they rebounded off team-mates’ heads. Strength and conditioning coach Andy Mitchell conducted a game of ‘chickens and foxes’ that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a play group. Who said this lot couldn’t organise a food fight at a kids’ party?
The relaxed approach is indicative of McCullum’s desire to remove the pressure from his players — one of the key elements he has instilled in the Test environment.
The New Zealander says: ‘The single greatest thing for us since I jumped into this white-ball job is that these guys are too hard on themselves.’ They also ‘care too much’. Two elements, he says, that are limiting their talent.
England went with a one-dimensional attack, and that backfired when Mark Wood got injured
England’s batters also gave their wickets away too cheaply with several miscued hoicks
Joe Root (right) and Ben Duckett (left) have shown the way forward, but England have failed to follow their lead and will be heading home this weekend, eliminated after just two matches
However, Key must also satisfy himself that McCullum’s tactical calls match his enthusiasm. He backs his players to the hilt, but has he backed the right ones? The selection for this competition felt one-dimensional. His favoured bowlers, fast, hunt wickets relentlessly; his batters dictate rather than allow themselves to be dictated to.
But a one-size-fits-all approach of speed and aggression has been exposed by Asian conditions and the more nuanced approaches of opponents. In 50 years of global tournaments, England have never headed into one with a higher proportion of right-handed batters and bowlers than this, while Australia and Afghanistan, as India did earlier this month, have maximised their points of difference.
England’s first two Group B rivals opened the bowling with left-arm swing bowlers, the Afghans taking their variety to extreme lengths in also fielding left and right-arm wrist spinners, plus right-arm seamers and an orthodox off-spinner. India’s policy is to pack their XI with bowlers who release the ball from contrasting angles and trajectories, in a bid to avoid any semblance of uniformity. They broke up their bank of right-handers in the middle order during the recent 3-0 whitewashing of Buttler’s team by promoting Axar Patel to No 5.
England’s quest to play on the front foot has been littered with pitfalls. Dismissals via miscued hoicks have been explained away with the recurring rhetorical question, ‘What if it had gone for six?’ in the expectation that the next time it will. Frankly, there have been too many ‘what ifs’.
What if Wednesday’s match-winner Ibrahim Zadran had responded to his side’s slump by trying to smote Jofra Archer out of the ground? Afghanistan could have been four wickets down inside a dozen overs. Instead, he played the long game, biding his time until he was set. It was a classic cruise through the gears that hit maximum speed shortly before he fell for 177.
Internally, there is a belief that England should be heading into Saturday’s match against South Africa with two wins rather than two losses alongside their name. That their blueprint of taking new-ball wickets and scoring hundreds — those of Ben Duckett and Joe Root as good as any by England players in ICC events — has been met, only for key moments to let them down.
Now it’s time for another Key moment, as he identifies the best candidate, possibly Harry Brook, to transform contented losers into ruthless winners.
