What is the deal with England and ODIs?

England played the very first match in the history of one-day internationals on January 5, 1971, against arch –rivals Australia, when the first 3 days of a scheduled Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground were all washed out. In the subsequent 42 years, England have gone on to become a successful Test side, but when it comes to one-dayers, they have not really been successful, or to put it more appropriately, they have underachieved.

Yes, they have been runners-up at the World Cup in 1979, 87 and 92; 2004 Champions Trophy and are about to compete in the final of the ongoing edition of the event. Sure, they can even boast of their 2010 World T20 crown, which happens to be their only ICC trophy.

However, they have never dominated world cricket, a la West Indies and Australia; never been intimidating like the current Indian and South African sides; never had an aura of unpredictability like Pakistan; they lack the Sri Lankan consistency and the Kiwi panache of always punching above their weight. They do win a series here and series there, but more often than not, they are always just there. For a country that is considered the home of cricket and fiercely protective of its cricketing roots, why is it that they have never been able to become a force to reckon with in ODIs?

First and foremost, as I mentioned earlier, England is fiercely protective of its cricketing roots. Here, Test cricket always takes precedence over its two limited overs counterparts. As a matter of fact, crowds in England do turn up in large number for Test matches and England and old rivals Australia can both claim to attract large crowds for their respective home Tests, something that has been unheard of in the Asian subcontinent in recent times, and for the English public, an Ashes will always matter more than a World Cup, World T20 and Champions Trophy. Period.

Ashes victories in 2005, 2009 and 2010-11 were more revered than the World T20 triumph. It is for this reason that more often than not, that they seem to play with a mindset that is perfect for Tests but not ODIs. Such lethargic has been their one day performance that now retired Paul Collingwood is the most capped English ODI player with 197 caps and highest run scorer with 5092 runs and is at 61 in the list of highest run scorers of all time. This means that no English batsman features among top-60 of ODI scorers of all time.

English cricket is also known for its history of producing technically sound players, fit for playing the 5-day game. Many English batsmen who played in the era of ODIs, including players like Geoffrey Boycott, Tony Greig, Mike Brearley, David Gower, Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Strauss and even current players like Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott and the fast emerging Joe Root are just the kind of players one would want to have in times of crisis, but not exactly the ones who, barring the odd occasion, can score 50 or 60 at a strike rate of 200 or 300.

Also, after the retirement of the legendary Sir Ian Botham, England never really had that one player who could completely turn the course of a match on his own. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are the only two players who came closest to emulating Botham. They did play integral roles in winning England Ashes in 2005, but never quite reached Botham’s level.

When it comes to one-day cricket, England have never really had a leader to lead them from front. Alec Stewart, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Andrew Strauss and currently Alastair Cook were all fine players and good captains but never great leaders. They were not the ones who could look an opposition player in their eye and tell them that they had just dropped a World Cup or make the opposition captain wait at the toss long enough to irritate them or not the kind of ones who could play the knock of a life time in a World Cup final.

Michael Vaughan, while never a great one-day captain, can still claim to have won an Ashes against an all-conquering Australia side and so can Andrew Strauss, who actually won back to back Ashes series, but taking nothing away from his England side, these Ashes victories had more to do with decline in Aussie fortunes than anything else. Always lacking that aggressive attitude, England could never have a leader like Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting who could lead them from front. Kevin Pietersen came the closest but even he was sacked.

England have also never really had horses for courses. The last good all-rounder they had was Andrew Flintoff who spent more time injured on the sidelines than on the field and eventually retired. He followed in the footsteps of Sir Botham and was successful to an extent. Today you see bits-part players like Ravi Bopara or Luke Wright or Samit Patel bat at 6 or 7. Also, since the retirement of Alec Stewart, they haven’t really had a good wicketkeeper-batsman.

Matt Prior, has firmly established himself as the world’s leading wicketkeeper-batsman in Tests, but finds himself out of the ODI side. Others like Tim Ambrose, Phil Mustard, Paul Nixon, Craig Kieswetter, all came and went while incumbent Jos Buttler hasn’t really flourished for the national team. Since Marcus Trescothick retired, England have struggled to find a decent opening partnership. Cook and Strauss came the closest, but otherwise you find a player like Bell, who actually belongs in the middle order, opening the batting with Cook. Their bowling line-up, on the contrary, has been settled for quite some time and does look impressive with the presence of Stuart Braod, James Anderson, Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn.

The “Three Lions” are never regarded as serious contenders in ICC tournaments and their performances in ICC tournaments post 2004 Champions Trophy is a big reason for that. They narrowly avoided playing in the qualifying rounds of the 2006 Champions Trophy only to unsurprisingly crash out in group stage. Despite making it to the Super 8s of the 2007 World Cup, they lost to most of the Test playing nations they faced, barring hosts West Indies and Bangladesh.

In the first ever T20 World Cup held in the same year in South Africa and as hosts in 2009, they qualified for the super 6s and were eliminated. They also lost the tournament opener to minnows The Netherlands. They did make it to the semifinal of 2009 Champions Trophy where they lost to Australia and won the 2010 World T20, but were back to their old self in 2011 World Cup, where they lost to co-hosts Bangladesh and more shockingly, Ireland before going down in the quarter-finals to Sri Lanka. It was because of such below average performances and knack of losing to smaller teams that England is not considered a force in ODIs.

After quite some time, England bears a settled look in ODIs. Unlike India, their opponents in Champions Trophy final and current world champions, they do not have an aggressive approach. They rely on their top order to give them a steady start that middle and lower middle order can capitalize on. This has proved to be very successful for them but does not really instill any fear in their opponents’ hearts. Their opponents may respect them but will never be intimidated by them.

If they do win Champions Trophy, it would be their maiden 50-over world crown. People may start considering them strong contenders for future ICC tournaments. If they lose, it is back to square one. However, even if they win, they would earn some well deserved respect, but would still have to go some way to earn the moniker of being the best team in ODIs.