Five stats McCullum must change to improve England’s ODI fortunes

Another day, another defeat.

England were comfortably defeated by India in Nagpur on Thursday when Brendon McCullum took charge of his first one-day international.

England, who have won 29 of their ODIs and lost 30 of them, has had a difficult run since winning the World Cup under Eoin Morgan in 2019.

McCullum and England haven’t had their best XI in that period, which is of course in its early stages.

England continued their struggles at the top of the order when they lost three wickets in the Nagpur powerplay against India.

Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy once gave them fast bowling starts, but England has lost 88 wickets in their first 10 overs in 44 games since 2022.

The struggles at the top have impacted their best ODI batter, captain Jos Buttler.

England’s skipper had only come into bat before the 15th over 10 times in 112 innings before 2022, when batting at number five or lower.

Since their height under Morgan, England have struggled to dominate or even control ODIs.

England batters scored 55 centuries in 99 ODIs during the time that followed their exit from the 2015 World Cup and their triumph at Lord’s four years later.

In 63 matches since they have scored only 23 centuries. They now have a 0.37th century per game, up from their average of 0.56.

Their century-long partnerships are also declining.

Since the 2019 World Cup, England has hosted 31 hundred supporters. They had 69 in the four years prior to the trophy’s lifting.

An expert cannot be held to be saying that an ODI bowled out is suboptimal.

England were bowled out for the 21st time in 44 ODIs since the start of 2022 on Thursday.

England’s issues are not only in the batting department.

They have suffered a lot in recent years from the failure to take wickets between the eleventh and fortyth over, once Liam Plunkett’s speciality.

Since the start of 2024, England’s bowlers average 42.4 runs per wicket in the ‘ middle overs’.