Cricket sources have stated that last time England has got through a whole ODI summer without losing a match was in 1997, when there was only three one day games and England beat Australia in all of them and over the last 19 years, the number of ODIs that have taken place has increased and recently there have been 10 or more matches across the summer, and going unbeaten over that many games is a lot more significant achievement.
It is added that it has now been 18 months since the disastrous 2015 World Cup where England were embarrassed to such an extent, that in the immediate aftermath they lost a Managing Director and a Head Coach and England turning that around to go through a summer without once losing a 50-over match would have been remarkable.
Meanwhile the big issue for England remains their bowling which is significantly less impressive than their batting, while they have four of the top five run scorers since the 2015 World Cup, they have just two bowlers in the top ten wicket takers in the same period and Adil Rashid is actually the leading wicket-taker since the World Cup, but he has taken his 38 wickets at an average of nearly 40.
It is added that success in the World T20 in India where they came so close to winning will give them confidence, but ODIs in India is England’s final frontier, where they have never beaten India in an ODI series in India and the closest they have come is two drawn series in 1993 and 2002. Win in India and we can start talking about this being a world beating side.
