Well, that was fun. England are the first team to hold both white ball World Cups simultaneously. The best England OD side of all time has proven how great a team they are in this format.
The final itself featured a tremendous bowling performance, led by Sam Curran, who has developed into an exceptional white ball bowler, compensating for his lack of pace by clever variations. Chris Jordan came back into the team for the semi-final and final, and showed his experience, and Ben Stokes almost inevitably was there at the end. So, all in all, a pretty good all round team performance. Add in some tremendous batting by the openers, Buttler and the returning Alex Hales, and the only slight surprise was the middle order didn’t have as much of an impact as expected in the tournament.
As T20 is still a comparatively young format, it is hard to make historic comparisons, although the England team interestingly has a substantial number of specialists, of whom many have been tried at test level. Only Stokes, Woakes and Wood have played tests in the last year, together with Harry Brook’s single appearance last season. Sam Curran may well in this form come back into contention, and Liam Livingstone is also somewhat surprisingly in the test squad for Pakistan. Phil Salt, a bit part player in this world cup, is young enough to come into contention in the longer formats if his form merits it.
What the composition of the squad does emphasise is how distinct the shortest format is becoming, and how it is becoming rarer for players to contribute on a regular basis in all three formats, given how specialised each role is becoming.
As a lifelong England fan, it is interesting to look back seven years and remember Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott both being regular 50 over players. How things have changed. There is no doubt that the white ball emphasis has resulted in a tremendous pool of players to choose from, and the next few years will need to see England gradually bringing younger players into the side to replace the world cup winners and build for the future. The likes of Will Jacks and Tom Banton have had some exposure at international level, and there are other players like Luke Wood of considerable promise.
The England juggernaut now moves on to three one day internationals in Australia and three tests in Pakistan, with two distinct squads once again being chosen. The aggressive batting which is now a characteristic of all England teams, most recently in Bazball, will doubtless be on show on the flattish pitches in Pakistan, while the younger OD players will be looking to lay down a marker as the lead up to the 50 over cricket world cup starts in earnest. I look forward to James Vince showing his class in the 50 over stuff- surely he deserves a run at 4 to finally show the world what he can do.
England crickets treadmill never stops, which is crazy really. Still, it is good to be world champions, and great to have Alex Hales and Jos Buttler as our openers blasting India everywhere, and even better to beat Pakistan in the final.
We complain a lot, but days like these, as Matt Monroe once sang, is why we follow England.