Batting worries cannot see England beyond Quarter Final Stages

In order to find more balance to the team, England has, of late, exposed the middle order by asking Ian Bell to open the innings along with Moeen Ali. This means that the inexperience in Taylor and Root or Balance at the middle of the innings is having a huge bearing to the rest of the players to follow. They are split with only the experienced Morgan batting in between them. And this inturn puts lots of pressure to the all-rounders in Ravi Bopara, Butler and Woakes and followed by tail enders.

I would have made Woakes to open the innings with Moeen Ali and allowed Alex Hales to come-in at No.3 and allow Bell to consolidate the mid innings. This will keep the scoring very swiftly at the top of the innings, allowing less pressure for the batsmen to follow.

The bowling department fares better when one compares with that of their batting. Having said that, the bowling is more dependent on Anderson and Finn, who can extract bounce from these Australian pitches. While Woakes economy averages around 5.92, Broad averages around 5.25, which is too much for a front line bowler and this will cause a dent in the team’s performance too. England is surely missing Stokes and I would have roped him against Bopara.

This England team is a very young and inexperienced batting side and this will make them suffer at the knock out stages.

England Team:

Batsmen: Morgan ©, Moeen Ali, Balance, Ian Bell, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Taylor,

Bowlers: Board, Steve Finn, Jordan, Tredwell, Anderson

All Rounders: Butler, Woakes, Ravi Bopara

Fixtures:

Vs Australia – Melbourne – Feb 14^th

Vs New Zealand – Wellington – Feb 20^th

Vs Scotland – Christchurch – Feb 23^rd

Vs Sri Lanka – Wellington – Mar 1^st

Vs Bangladesh – Adelaide – Mar 9^th

Vs Afganisthan – Sydney – Mar 13^th