England in India: Statistics Brendon McCullum must change as England white-ball coach
2025-02-07
Category: sports

Another day, another defeat.Brendon McCullum took charge of his first one-day international on Thursday but England were comfortably beaten by India in Nagpur.It is a familiar tale for England, who have lost 30 and won 29 of their ODIs in a difficult run since winning the World Cup under Eoin Morgan in 2019.It is, of course, early days for McCullum and England have rarely had their best XI in that time.But here are five damning statistics the New Zealander must change to resurrect England's fortunes in time for the Champions Trophy later this month.
Improve at the top
England lost three wickets in the powerplay against India in Nagpur, continuing their struggles at the top of the order.They were once given electric starts by Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy but since the start of 2022, England have lost 88 wickets in the first 10 overs across 44 matches. That gives them an average of losing two wickets per match in the first 10 overs - the most for any Full Member nation in this timeframe.
Protect Buttler
The struggles at the top have impacted their best ODI batter, captain Jos Buttler.England's skipper had only come into bat before the 15th over 10 times in 112 innings before 2022, when batting at number five or lower.Since then he has had to do so 13 times in 29 ODI innings.
Ton up 
England have struggled to dominate or even control ODIs with the bat since their peak under Morgan.In the period between their exit from the 2015 World Cup and victory at Lord's four years later, England batters scored 55 centuries in 99 ODIs.In 63 matches since they have scored only 23 centuries. They have gone from averaging 0.56 centuries per game to 0.37.Their number of century partnerships have dropped too.There have been 31 hundred stands for England since the 2019 World Cup. In the four years prior to lifting the trophy they scored 69.
Stop getting bowled out
It does not take an expert to say that getting bowled out in an ODI is suboptimal.England were bowled out for the 21st time in 44 ODIs since the start of 2022 on Thursday.Between 2016 and 2021 they were dismissed 20 times in 98 innings.
Take middle-order wickets
England's issues are not only in the batting department.A failure to take wickets between the 11th and 40th over - once the speciality of Liam Plunkett - has hurt them in the recent past.Since the start of 2024, England's bowlers average 42.4 runs per wicket in the 'middle overs'.Only West Indies, Bangladesh and Ireland have a worst record among the Full Member nations. When it comes to economy rate in this metric, England are the worst.