It is just three games, one series, played at home against one of the few major cricketing nationsranked even lower than them. But if it would be unwise to get carried away with England’s clean sweep of West Indies there was no mistaking what we witnessed along the way: green shoots, tender and fragile but undeniable, desperately needed signs of renewal after a period of atrophy. The genesis of a new team, under fresh leadership, with fresh emphases and impetus.
It has been overdue. From the miseries ofthe last World Cupto the indignity ofthis year’s Champions Trophy, England’s recent 50-over record is dire. Between the start of that World Cup and this summer they played 26 games and won only seven, along the way playing bilateral series against West Indies, Australia, West Indies again and India and losing them all.
After Matthew Mott was appointed coach and Jos Buttler took over the captaincy in the middle of 2022 results nosedived: even Buttler’s best year in the job, 2023, was worse than any of the seven his predecessor, Eoin Morgan, spent in charge, and of his last 15 games England won only three.
Mott left last July and has since been replaced by Brendon McCullum, whileButtler stepped downin February saying he had “just reached the end of the road”. His team looked knackered and almost as miserable as those who had to watch them. Not any more. “It’s a new era,” Harry Brook said afterthe first gameat Edgbaston last week. “We’re trying to forget about the past.” And the sooner that happens the better.
There are still long-term relics of the last era in Adil Rashid, Joe Root and Buttler himself, the only players to feature in this series with as many as 30 ODI appearances (and between them that trio has 522). Meanwhile players about whom Buttler and Mott never seemed able to make up their minds have been backed.
The big call is the promotion of Jamie Smith, who after his debut played 10 of 17 games under Buttler and whose record as opener is short and unexceptional. The decision left even the player himself “a little bit surprised” but his 28-ball 64 at the Oval on Tuesday, in just his third innings there, showed his potential and the position is his for the foreseeable future. “He’s going to have a good go at it at the top in one-day cricket,” Brook says.
Will Jacks, a player more used to opening, has dropped down the order to No 7. Despite his obvious ability after his debut in 2023 Jacks played just 15 of England’s next 35 games and when they awarded their central contracts that year was not only snubbed but found out about it “on Twitter like everyone else”. Now he has been told to make himself at home. “This is Harry’s team now,” Jacks said. “It’s just about bringing a lot of energy. It’s a fresh start.”
But if there is a degree of novelty about the team selection, the real innovations have been in the field. Brook is a young captain at 26, and quite inexperienced with just 29 ODIs, and 44 50-over games in all, to his name, but he is clearly confident in his judgments.
The results look certain to be entertaining and have the potential, glimpsed over the past few days, to also be successful. He likes to position himself near the bowler – the stopclocks permanently adopted last year make it hard for a captain to be anywhere else while effectively communicating, and England still received two time warnings in Tuesday’s third game – but at times he fielded not at a traditional mid-on or mid-off but behind the bowler’s arm. He likes to leave gaps that batters can exploit, but not in the places they are used to finding them.
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“I like to try and get a little bit funky with fields and try to mix it up a bit, get the batters thinking,” Brook said. “He might not always be the most intelligent away from cricket but he understands the game exceptionally well,” Root said affectionately (and it is telling too that Root, in Cardiff, and Buttler, with a free-hitting cameo at the Oval, produced their best batting displays in the format for some time).
“I think that’s what will make him a really good leader. He might see the game slightly differently, and he might do things differently, but it asks different questions of a batter. There was a phase in the game where we had quite unusual fields, but they found it hard to rotate. It built pressure. It led to wickets.”
ODIs are often seen as something of an afterthought, and the next serious test in the format is a World Cup in late 2027. Attention now switches to T20s, with three games against West Indies starting in Durham on Friday and a World Cup looming next February. For Brook it is another fresh and unfamiliar challenge but England’s new captain has already inspired that most vital of all sporting commodities: hope.