After their unfortunate defeat by New Zealand, England know they have to win their final three group games of the World Twenty20.
They played pretty well in Chittagong, 170 was a competitive score in those conditions and it’s a great shame what happened in that match with the weather. Now they find themselves up against it.
On Thursday they will face Sri Lanka and the threat of Lasith Malinga with that remarkable bowling action.
Malinga is 30 now but is still outstanding at this level and has a fine record against England, including 5-31 when the teams met in October 2012.
You’d hope that regular Twenty20 cricketers will cope with him better than the Dutch team did when they were all out for 39 – the lowest score in Twenty20 international history – and Malinga certainly doesn’t have the pace that he once had, but it is going to be a very tough game.
It’s hard to tell how Sri Lanka are playing, given that their last game was such a farcically one-sided affair, but they are a very good T20 side, certainly one of those teams that I would fancy to go very well in this tournament.
They were ruthless against the Netherlands. People will talk about the failings of the Dutch, but you still have to sweep these sides away and good teams do that.
Other sides get themselves into a bit of a knot and view it as a banana skin whereas Sri Lanka blitzed them and went home, and that’s what you have to do against these associate sides.
There was encouragement for England against the Kiwis, however. Moeen Ali hit six fours and a six in his 36 off 23 balls at number three and I like the look of him.
He struck the ball very cleanly, and it’s really important that you have a left-hander, preferably opening the batting, in all one-day cricket, certainly T20, because left-handers can hit you anywhere – effectively.
They can slice you from third man round to deep extra cover, scythe it, cut it, run it, any width at all and left-handers make it very difficult.
If you look at all the really top class batsmen, the most destructive in recent years have been left-handed, people like Chris Gayle and Adam Gilchrist. They hit you in a huge arc and can also pick you up over square leg, so you do need that left-hander.
Moeen Ali definitely has a chance to force his way into the Test team because they’ve got an opener to find. Michael Carberry is by no means a certainty so Moeen can stake his claim, while Jos Buttler also has a very good opportunity of keeping wicket in the Tests. There are all sorts of places up for grabs.
There is Graeme Swann’s position to be taken. I see Monty Panesar got 5-63 for the MCC in Abu Dhabi so there are loads of opportunities, but you don’t get much time to prove yourself in Twenty20 cricket, one chance and that’s your lot!
Moeen is not in the cavalier class but he does strike the ball nicely and he bowls slow off-spin that is pretty useful here, so he’s a very useful addition to the side. The problem for England is that it’s all pretty workmanlike, they haven’t got a stand-out player.
Eoin Morgan is going through a pretty rough trot. In his last 11 T20 internationals he has scored 136 runs at an average of 12 so he’s battling and he’s England’s stand-out player. That sums up the way they are going into this tournament, it is going to be a big struggle for them.
In some ways it can be quite liberating when you know no-one expects very much and you can just go out and play, but by the same token you are expected to perform well and South Africa, who provide the opposition on Saturday, will be buoyed by beating New Zealand, when it looked as if they were going to lose.
England are playing in the second match of the day again, which is also a disadvantage. Three of their four games are in the evening and with all the uncertainty over how the dew will affect the ball, you don’t know if you’re going to bat first or field first, and therefore what team do you play?
You can’t play too many spinners if they can’t grip the ball so I shouldn’t think they will change their team, especially as they batted pretty well last time.
If they were playing a day game you might consider another spinner, but if you’re going to sacrifice a seamer for someone who might not be able to hold the ball that might not make a lot of sense.
They need to beat Sri Lanka to have a respectable chance of staying in the tournament. I don’t expect them to lose to the Netherlands in their final group match on Monday, as they famously did at Lord’s in 2009, but the only worry about that game is it could be a totally dead rubber and then anything could happen.
England have got to focus all of their efforts on beating Sri Lanka before thinking about anything else.
