Harry Brook's England were stunned in Pakistan after dropping Adil Rashid, but the fixes before Australia look simple.
England's ODI tour started like a dream and ended in a puzzle. Gus Atkinson struck with the first ball of the trip, and with series wins over Sri Lanka at home and away and a Dukes-ball hammering of Pakistan behind them, a final place looked like a formality. It never came. Harry Brook's side will watch Saturday's tri-series decider from the sidelines.
Twice England reached positions that looked unlosable, and twice the contest turned on them. Against Sri Lanka they ran their usual play: smash a monster total and let the scoreboard do the work. They posted 429, yet Pavan Rathnayake and Dasun Shanaka kept hitting back. England needed one quiet spell of about three overs to make the chasers scramble for ones and twos while the required rate ballooned. That spell never arrived.
Brook's double hundred ended in defeat, making him the first player to score an ODI double century and still finish on the losing side. It is a harsh footnote to a brilliant knock, and it shows how thin England's margin for error becomes when their bowling plan has no control in the middle overs.
That is why leaving Adil Rashid out of the last three games stands out. The leg-spinner is the kind of bowler who can squeeze a chase and take wickets at the same time, and his absence left England short of the control they were chasing. It was a puzzling call, but it is a fixable one. England have time to rethink their balance before Australia, so there is no need to panic yet.
