England need to stick by Dawid Malan and Harry Brook despite an opening-day defeat to New Zealand, writes Phil Walker.
Dawid Malan doesn’t care much for music. Especially when he’s driving, any noise getting up in his thoughts makes him jittery. He prefers the quiet: all the better to think. Blocking out the din, muffling the voices, is a trick he’s had to learn to play on himself. Harry Brook isn’t so into silence, he’s more on the Elton-glasses-and-wellies, Afro-raving Baby Shark side of the dial. It’s all a question of tempo.
The volume will increase after each day, each day, and each match of this World Cup. It may not be 11 a.m. yet – it was clearly a pianissimo drum roll to restart this never-ending circus – but even on Thursday, the first leg of 48, the cavernous three-quarters empty in the bowl, and the noise continues to get louder all around. English team. Eoin Morgan took the lead. He was too passive and didn’t take enough shots. “They didn’t play hard enough,” he said at halftime. After three hours, they had given up 38 boundaries in 36 overs. Morgan is always at halftime. Suddenly, and we have just won the place, England have to play perfect cricket from here on out.
It was a strangely incongruous inning. At first glance, it felt like a return to their old ways before they found their sound. A hurried start, an awkward setback, a careful rebuild, a wobble in the third act, a low bunt — a crushing defeat. Joe Root later said that although the opening day was often a “cage affair”, it wasn’t a bad summation of the overall performance. However, “kagheit” is not in this team’s vocabulary.
So we returned to the old crossroads again. Was it a bad idea or just a bad shot? After a brawl like this, it’s tempting to cling to theory and see the big picture. Who is the oldest team in the tournament? Loyalty was at an all-time high. attack? Uncooked. strike? I’m restless. Middle class? Unreliable. From there, it’s easy to look through the scorecard and build your story.
The pin circles around the undroppable item, but gets caught by Maran and Brook. The latter is because, as Butler points out, he will be the last in and likely the first out once Ben Stokes returns from a minor hip issue. It is known that Brook was not part of the original 15-man squad, but his scores of 25, 2, and 10 in three warm-up games were probably better than Jason Roy, who suffered from similar early-onset back spasms. This must have been a convincing reason to add him to the team first. Malan’s comments were based on his confident performance as an opening pitcher in the New Zealand team’s preliminary match last month, which was one of the reasons he was selected, and contributed to convincing him of the reason for his exclusion from the England team. Malan’s form and Brooks’ versatility pushed Roy aside.
At the end of these ODIs, Malan made an interesting observation. He said it takes either genius or consistency to stay on this team. And he knows which camp he’s in. His confidence is particularly strong, as befits a 36-year-old who has been left behind in England for longer than necessary. He knows who he is and what he has to do.
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By any reasonable measure, the numbers 22 ODIs to 511 96 and 95 in one go should act as a sound barrier, his own noise canceller. Despite the small sample size, the numbers are excellent. The difference offered as a left-handed player with multiple gears promises real added value.
Malan deserves to do well as an opener for this team. His 14 (24) against New Zealand was not so much a mistake as one of the moments when a top-class white ball player, in this case Matt Henry, conceded a goal. It happens. Isolated criticism of Malan’s first World Cup innings is inaccurate.
But despite Butler’s attempts to move on from the past (“It doesn’t matter to me”), the 2019 ideal continues to haunt this team, and even the slightest deviation from the purity of its vision Then there is a risk of something like partial demotion. As Morgan settles in for the final scene, signaling her to try harder, and Roy’s ghost floats across the pitch, Malan realizes that it has been the case throughout his career, whether it’s for him or not. You’ll hear the whispers just as you did.
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It’s Brooke, those hands, that smile, that unbridled otherness, that’s the real problem. Chaos ensues wherever he goes. Had his innings against New Zealand lasted 17 more minutes, he would have been a substitute for the rest of the tournament. In fact, he hit five of his first 15 pitches on the line and threw the 16th pitch into the air. (The recording was successful. His move against spinners is devastating and like any signature move, sometimes it fails. Even Viv was thrown around. ) he must play.
The important thing is that this is England. Or at least the England we expect to see, standing as two-time world champions, bright-eyed and screaming in the face of danger. The mysterious everyday life of England. Brook has to play here in England. By the way, Maran too. For now, the all-rounder will give way.
The first game was objectively shocking. However, the advantage for England was that it clarified some loose ends. And so their tournament begins. Whatever they get, we also get something else.
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