England’s interim head coach Marcus Trescothick has insisted that Thursday’s eight-wicket defeat by West Indies is not a true reflection of where the white-ball team are, despite a 12th loss in 18 matches.
England fell to a heavy defeat in the first of three ODIs against the West Indies when a sub-par batting performance in which they were bowled out for 209 was followed up with a spirited, but ultimately fruitless, bowling display as opener Evin Lewis smashed 94 off 69 deliveries.
“I think it’s certainly not where England cricket is at,” Trescothick said. “Because for a long period of time now you’ve not had our main team in white-ball games. You don’t really know where white-ball cricket is.”
The tourists named four debutants in their XI, as all of Jordan Cox, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton and John Turner made their bows, only for the group to be given a harsh reality check as the West Indies won with 9.1 overs to spare and eight wickets in hand.
The loss was a familiar tale for England both in the Caribbean and across the past 12 months. This is the fifth time England have toured the region in the past three years and they have lost all four of the previous series. Furthermore, since the start of the 2023 ODI World Cup, they have lost exactly two-thirds of their matches.
Trescothick is correct that the squad currently in the Caribbean are missing several first-choice players due to the series being sandwiched between Test tours of Pakistan and New Zealand. But the squad selected for the series loss against Australia last month were close to full strength, as were the squads for the previous tour of the West Indies last year and for the World Cup.
After losing the toss in Antigua, England were asked to bat in tricky conditions and failed to adapt to a wicket where shot-making was difficult. Of the top six batters, all of Phil Salt, Will Jacks, Cox, Jacob Bethell and Liam Livingstone fell tamely to catches in the ring.
“We’ve got to try and bat 50 overs first and foremost,” said Trescothick. “The real skill in white-ball cricket in particular is the tempo and the balance between aggression and batting for long periods of time. We will always be a team that is going to try and be aggressive. The pitch made it quite tricky to do that over the course of today.”
It was a sentiment agreed with by Livingstone, his captain, who believes his team must “get up to speed as quickly as possible” after the defeat.
“[We have to] try to get into the rhythms of 50-over cricket as quickly as we can,” said Livingstone. “We had four debuts and they’ll have all learned a hell of a lot from what they experienced and hopefully they’ll come on from that.
“We pride ourselves on putting in performances for England. It’s always special when you wear the Three Lions on your chest and we’re pretty disappointed with how we played.”
The defeat called into question England’s current selection strategy of prioritising youth, with the likes of Cox, in just the fifth 50-over game of his career, walking out on his England debut at No 3 and the 21-year-old Bethell at No 4.
“It’s probably a better question for the selectors more than anything else,” said Trescothick. “It’s not my decision who comes in. But I think you can see from the plan of the England team in the last year, and maybe a little bit further back, how much we want to invest in the next generation.”
The second ODI also takes place in Antigua and starts on Saturday, also in Antigua, with Trescothick encouraging the group to find the right balance between taking advantage of their “free hit” opportunity before Brendon McCullum takes over in January.
“That’s very much how we’re framing it,” Trescothick said of the mindset presented to the group. “The opportunities are there for the guys to come in … I am trying to get the priority right at the moment. I want to win every game and we dictate that in the dressing room. But we also want to see a few players in the environment before the structure changes and Brendon takes over.”
