England barely a week before the Champions Trophy event have just lost an ODI series against India pretty comfortably 3-0. So are they in trouble? Possibly. One thing for sure is it is not a good look to be losing like this before a major tournament. But they aren’t in crisis necessarily. Something was said by Kevin Pieterson where he mentioned that apart from Joe Root, the rest of the English team weren’t training after the initial loss in the first game. Which Pieterson called out after the series.
The interesting thing is, it’s not like England have a poor team, in fact quite the opposite. Yes, it is a younger side but they should be competitive at least. Now there is a possibility that they are taking it somewhat easy before the Champions Trophy, but that’s not usually what you want heading into a tournament. Not to mention, England haven’t won the Champions Trophy before so they have some incentive to win this trophy. It’s not like they don’t have a tough group, South Africa have a strong side, Australia are always a threat and Afghanistan are no pushovers so if the English aren’t careful they could end up with no wins and bottom of the group.
So overall it’s not time to ring the alarm bells yet, if that scenario happens as described above, then it definitely will be. Granted, Indian pitches are obviously different from the Pakistani pitches so again, it definitely isn’t panic mode yet, but the English have some work to do before their first game against Australia.
Australia Squad Update
With Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood already out, the news of the other premier bowler for Australia has been ruled out of the team for the Champions Trophy. Spencer Johnson, Nathan Ellis, Sean Abbott and Ben Dwarshuis have been added into the side for the Aussie’s. Which still makes them very dangerous as an attack. Spencer Johnson has been very good in recent years, as has Ben Dwarshuis. Nathan Ellis is an incredibly good fast bowler to have in the side too as he keeps breaking into the team. Sean Abbott provides plenty of experience while also still being a quality option himself.