The art of leading from the front

What's happening to defending champions England isn't normal. They were expected to be better, they should've been better but at this point, barring a miracle of sorts, their World Cup is over.

- Ashish Magotra

As statistician Andy Zaltzman pointed out on X, between June 2015 to September 2023, England lost just nine of 131 completed ODIS by a margin of over 65 runs or 8 wickets. In this World Cup alone, after just five matches, they have added four to that list.

The reasons for this sudden slump are many but nothing can explain how uninterested. England have looked and this is precisely the situation where a captain could have made a difference. But instead, skipper Jos Buttler looks like he has been held back by his own failings.

"There's no one else who can score your own runs or take your own wickets," said Buttler after the loss against Sri Lanka on Thursday. "That comes from the start, from the captain at the front. I've been a long way short of my best. As a leader, you want to lead through your own performance and I've not been able to do that."

The words have an element of truth but it isn't the whole truth as former England skipper Mike Brearley or Buttler's predecessor Eoin Morgan would tell us.

Brearley, widely regarded as one of England's finest skippers, averaged just 22.88 in a career spanning 39 Tests. Morgan averaged 39.29 over the course of his 248-match ODI career, a number that would have been higher but a batting slump towards the end. But the teams they were in charge of, kept winning.