With the series sewn up and the dizzying landslide of records from the win at Trent Bridge still fresh in their minds, England go into the fourth one-day international with Pakistan at Headingley on Thursday glowing with such confidence it feels only complacency, or a fruity pitch in Leeds, can derail them as they hunt for a first 5-0 whitewash at home.
Eoin Morgan’s side are 3-0 up with two matches to play, having broken the record for the highest innings total by an international side in 50-over cricket with their 444 for three and, it is not too bold to suggest, the tourists also. For Azhar Ali’s side, only a chance to level the convoluted multiformat Super Series remains.
After a day between games spent travelling and resting, England’s players must now reset themselves and Morgan has already hinted bowlers may be rotated. With Chris Jordan, David Willey and Jake Ball all unused in the series to date, there is a chance for them and they will no doubt be straining at the leash to take on a Pakistan side who have failed to come down from the high of a drawn Test series.
Batting changes look less likely with Alex Hales, the one player whose form had started to raise eyebrows in some quarters, having overcome his recent funk. Chris Woakes, who took four for 41 in Pakistan’s reply at Trent Bridge, is among those delighted with the opener’s turnaround. “He is a brilliant player who has scored at international level before,” he said. “I’ve played against him and he has scored daddy hundreds in no time. He had a hundred before lunch once. You have to be able to play to do that. I suppose he hasn’t scored as many runs as he would have liked this summer but to do that is special for him on his home ground. It was a really nice moment.”
Hales was not the only batsman to deliver on Tuesday, with Pakistan’s bowlers also suffering from the frictionless strike-rotation of Joe Root, who scored 85 from 86 balls as he and Hales added 248 for the second wicket. Then Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan ignited with the two fastest half-centuries by England batsmen, only 22 and 24 balls respectively.
When a player such as Ben Stokes, scorer of the fastest Test double hundred by an Englishman, is left waiting in the pavilion, as he was the case in Nottingham, it is only natural to ponder just how far the current side can go. But whether a score of 500-plus is possible is not something Woakes, as a seamer, wants to contemplate too much.
“If the boys keep batting the way they are, you can never say never,” he said. “But it would be a really freakish day. We’ve seen 400 reached a lot more often but whether 500 can happen, I’m not sure it can, to be honest. I hope not as a bowler.”
Off the field, the issue of England’s tour to Bangladesh rumbles on as players continue to digest the briefing from the team’s security expert, Reg Dickason, last week. Woakes feels “people won’t know they are 100% safe until they get there” but insisted the focus must continue to be on the opposition in front of them.
In this respect, a quick turnaround for Thursday’s game is handy, although whether it is good news for the tourists remains to be seen. They have thus far put on an accurate reenactment of England’s plodding one-day cricket that led up to their World Cup exit early last year and now find their captain, Azhar, in the Alastair Cook role as the subject of reports in Pakistanthat he is set to be replaced.
Azhar remains a fine Test batsman but in his 50-over guise has struggled to score at the rate the modern-day game dictates. The lamentable fielding display by his players was beyond his control and must improve if face, and the Super Series, is to be saved in the final two matches and the Twenty20 that follows.
