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England's Champions Trophy campaign has been nothing short of a disaster. However, head coach Brendon McCullum believes there were a few positives to take away from the disappointment, as per ESPNcricinfo.
The brightest of them was Jofra Archer's performance and fitness. The fast bowler completed his full quota of overs in England's first two matches and bowled nine of the 29.1 overs in the third game against South Africa. He consistently clocked good pace, took wickets in each game, and was England's standout bowler, even as South Africa cruised to victory. "He's been out of competitive cricket for a couple of years," McCullum said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo. "I think it's taken just a little bit of time to get that rhythm of gameplay back, but I think he's been really good. He's bowled high pace, he's played a lot of cricket, he's been able to get significant workload under his belt throughout this time and we've seen moments of how great Jofra is, even tonight, a couple of wickets he took the other night against Afghanistan, three with the new ball," he added. "We know how great a player Jofra is at the very top of his game, and to have him back and to have him fit and excited about playing is a real win for English cricket," he said. Archer impressed with both the new ball and the worn wicket. Against Australia, he dismissed Travis Head early with a sharp return catch but, with little swing on offer, stuck to tight lines instead of searching for movement. Against Afghanistan, he bowled 12 consecutive short balls before varying his lengths, picking up two wickets in five deliveries. In the final game, with Mark Wood injured and England defending an almost impossible target, Archer was the fastest bowler on either side, dismissing Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs in his opening spell. His ability to handle increased workloads will give England hope that he can play a key role in the Ashes later this year. McCullum, however, remained cautiously optimistic. "We've got to make sure that we're always doing the right thing by Jof as well and understand the risks involved," McCullum said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo. "But I'm pretty sure he's pretty keen to play Test cricket, and you look at someone like Jof - and if you can add him to the battery of fast bowlers you're trying to build, that can only strengthen this squad. We'll wait and see, but overall, I'm really pleased with where Jof's at, and it's great to see him back playing and injury-free at the moment," he said. Beyond Archer's resurgence, there was little else to celebrate. England's ODI struggles under McCullum have been severe--three wins and eleven losses, including seven consecutive defeats, their longest losing streak in ODIs since 2001. While McCullum suggested England could have won their first two matches, their crushing loss to South Africa left no illusions about the side's decline. "We weren't good enough across, obviously very disappointed," McCullum said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo. "We had high hopes of being able to finish the tournament with a bit of a bang, but we were very poor, and we've got a lot of work to do. We'll put our thinking caps on over the next few weeks and start to try and navigate our way through what an improvement looks like across our white-ball cricket and make sure we try and be pretty thorough with that and work out a way that we can get ourselves back to where we should be," he added. With nearly three months before their next ODI, England face a major rebuilding phase, starting with the appointment of a new captain. Jos Buttler stepped down on Thursday, acknowledging that the team's poor results made it the right time to pass on the leadership. His final innings as captain were a shadow of the player who is widely regarded as England's greatest white-ball batter. He scratched his way to 21 off 43 balls without hitting a single boundary--the second-longest innings of his career without finding the fence--before tamely chipping Lungi Ngidi to mid-off. "We still see Jos as obviously a big player within that, and he's got a huge role to play. He cared so much about it, and he admittedly said that he wasn't able to get the best out of the guys at this stage. I thought it was a brave decision to make, and it gives us now an opportunity to be able to start to plot and plan our way forward," he said. "I'll get home in the next couple of days and start having some conversations with Rob Key and the guys at the ECB about who the right person is for us to put in that position of white-ball captain. Then we assess how to learn some of the lessons that we've been dealt on this tour and in this tournament to ensure that we're a lot more competitive than what we've been," he noted. (ANI)
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