All change for England with Bangladesh series set to begin

Just 27 hours after England’s agonising loss in New Zealand, a white-ball assignment begins 7,000 miles away
Debut imminent? Rehan Ahmed
AFP via Getty Images
Malik Ouzia @MalikOuzia_28 February 2023

With the combined ubiquity of five o’clock somewhere and rats in London sewers, England’s men will once again be playing cricket tomorrow, starting the first of two series in Bangladesh having only this morning finished one in New Zealand.

Around 7,000 miles and just 27 hours separate the red- and white-ball assignments, which are simultaneously both so far removed and so close in proximity as to pose not merely one of modern cricket’s logistical nightmares but a refreshingly straightforward impossibility: even a close-of-play dash from Basin Reserve to Wellington International and the help of a fair prevailing wind could not have got the keenest traveller to Dhaka in time for the toss and the first of three ODIs.

As such, it is all-change in the playing staff, the exception being Surrey’s Will Jacks, who was part of the Test squad in New Zealand but after going unused flew to Bangladesh over the weekend to join the 50-over group as a belated replacement for the injured Tom Abell.

Jacks, along with teenage leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, is one of two possible debutants in the format, both players sure to be fixtures in England sides for years to come but perhaps up against it to break through in time for the autumn’s World Cup, because the irony for captain Jos Buttler and head coach Matthew Mott is that beyond the end of the next fortnight scarcity, not overload, becomes the issue.

After these three ODIs and the three T20s that follow, England do not play another white-ball fixture until September as the Indian Premier League, home Ashes and the Hundred dominate the next six months of the calendar, almost without pause.

By then, England - if they are not quite there already - must know the makeup of their World Cup squad, with home series against Ireland and New Zealand at the rear end of the summer expected to be used for fine-tuning an XI that will never have played together at full-strength previously.

Most of the questions around its makeup are as they were in South Africa at the start of the month. Jason Roy is still searching for consistent runs despite a hundred in Bloemfontein, while the continued absences of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow mean top-order opportunities, if not permanent openings, are on offer. Phil Salt, who carried drinks for three matches in South Africa, ought to finally get a run of games, with Harry Brook and Ben Duckett in New Zealand, but even then selection is not guaranteed, Jacks and James Vince, in good form in franchise cricket, both keen to push cases, too.

In the bowling ranks, Jofra Archer is continuing his international comeback, though this time there is the tantalising prospect of the 27-year-old bowling in tandem with Mark Wood, who returns having been rested for both Test and white-ball tours so far in 2023. Saqib Mahmood is also in line for a first cap in almost a year after recovering from a stress fracture of the back.

As a collective, the emphasis will be on ending a run of four ODI series without a victory, a sizeable task given Bangladesh have not lost a home series since England’s last visit in 2016.

How England fare in sub-continental conditions - where they have not played 50-over cricket in two years - should offer further clues ahead of their World Cup defence in India.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in