While England may be only one game into their new era of one-day cricket, these are clearly heady times. Such is the confidence coursing through the veins of the team that, after compiling their first total north of 400 runs at Edgbaston on Tuesday, Joe Root believes they can better that performance when they take on New Zealand in Friday’s second one-day international at a sold-out Oval.
Root’s point – and it is a fair one – is that four of their biggest hitters in Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Ben Stokes and Sam Billings contributed only 33 runs between them to an otherwise 50-over all-you-can-eat buffet in Birmingham that saw 408 for nine posted before the tourists were bowled out for 198. Get those three firing and Eoin Morgan’s side, on another batsman-friendly pitch, can continue kicking off the shackles that dogged the winter’s harrowing World Cup campaign.
“You’ve got guys who are explosive batters who didn’t get off the ground the other day,” said Root, after England trained in glorious south London sunshine. “We have shown that we can do it now and what we want is to try and replicate it. We won’t do it every week but we’ll take that approach into every match.”
Asked if the mood in the dressing room had changed significantly since their troubled winter, Root added: “It’s not massively different. There are still a lot of the same blokes in that team and it is just nice to see us come back so strongly from that World Cup so quickly. Obviously it is only one performance and our main thing going forward is to be more consistent.”
England, who are expected to remain unchanged, are certainly on a ground that produces for them consistently, with wins in seven of their past eight games played at The Oval. New Zealand, meanwhile, will probably recall the rested Tim Southee in place of Matt Henry, as they look to move level in the five-match series. Root is certainly wary of a backlash from Brendon McCullum’s World Cup finalists.
“We’re not naive enough to think New Zealand won’t come back hard at us, because they’re a great side,” said Root, whose 71-ball century powered Tuesday’s monstrous effort. “They’ve proved that now for the last couple of years in one-day cricket and we’re going to have to play extremely well to get another win under our belts.”
Root’s positive outlook for a repeat of Edgbaston’s pyrotechnics should come as no surprise, of course. It was the Test vice-captain who said at Headingley that his team-mates would come out “all guns blazing” in their final-day pursuit of 455 only to see them bowled out for 200 short of that target and draw the series 1-1. While those juicy soundbites drew more guffaws than sage nods, in modern one-day cricket such a mind-set is the only option.
Despite losing wickets at regular intervals on Tuesday, not once did they contemplate that very English of fallback positions – consolidation. Instead they continued their rapid ascent to the summit of the mountain. The plaudits duly flowed the way of the batsmen, with Root’s third-fastest century in English history quickly moved down a spot by Jos Buttler’s 66-ball effort before the bowlers rolled the tourists.
Among the wickets was the leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who followed his 50-ball 69 with figures of four for 55 in only his seventh ODI and who now has cricket’s cognoscenti pondering whether he can make the jump to Test cricket in time for this summer’s Ashes series. Root has few doubts that his Yorkshire team-mate, who claimed 46 victims in last season’s title win, has the ability.
“Why not?” said Root, when asked about Rashid’s prospects of challenging Moeen Ali for his place. “I’ve seen what he has done in county cricket – and you’ve seen he can perform at international level in one day cricket – so I’m sure if given the opportunity he’d love to show everyone what he can do. He is a phenomenal talent and I’ve known that for a long time now.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to bits for him. He’s a cheeky little chap in the changing room. He doesn’t really say much but when he does it’s great value. To see Rash perform like that was great. I obviously knew he was capable of it but again I’m thrilled for him and he’ll be excited to get back out there and replicate it.”
Rashid’s white-ball prowess has already received interest from teams in Australia’s Big Bash League, with Adelaide Strikers, who will be coached by Yorkshire’s Jason Gillespie this winter, the 27-year-old’s expected destination should England decide against naming him for their Test tour to South Africa.
First up for the wrist-spinning all-rounder will be proving that Tuesday’s haul was not a one-off, with New Zealand’s batsmen hoping to have wised up to a googly that their No3 Kane Williamson admitted was “well-disguised” and that Root confessed he often fails to pick in the nets at Yorkshire.
The tourists were not surprised by England’s attacking intent with the bat, however, with Williamson admitting he expected fast scoring when he saw the make-up of the squad that showed six players from their doomed World Cup campaign dropped.
He said: “I saw they had made a lot of changes and I’m familiar with most of the players, having played county cricket over here, and I knew to expect they’d play aggressively. There’s a lot of stroke-makers in that line-up. But to score 400 is not something that happens very often and it was a great effort.”
