Harry Brook has admitted that he is flummoxed by England\u2019s inability to get consistent results in recent one-day internationals, saying that some of the supposedly stellar talents in his squad \u2013 which includes up to seven batters he insists \u201cwould get into any team in the world\u201d \u2013 \u201cjust haven\u2019t performed well enough\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is disappointing, isn\u2019t it?\u201d England\u2019s white-ball captain admitted, as he looked ahead to the third and final fixture in an already-lost series against New Zealand. \u201cYou go round every single player there and you think: \u2018Bloody hell, there isn\u2019t many teams that they don\u2019t get into in the world.\u2019 It\u2019s disappointing we haven\u2019t performed as well as we could. Sometimes you\u2019ve got to hold your hand up and say they\u2019ve been the better team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The problem is that England keep coming across better teams, and in the last two years they have lost bilateral ODI series to West Indies, Australia, West Indies again, India, South Africa and now New Zealand, while winning only on the one occasion they got to play West Indies at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got five, six, maybe seven batters who would get into almost every team in the world,\u201d Brook said. \u201cThey just haven\u2019t performed well enough. It\u2019s disappointing. It\u2019s disappointing for the fans, who want to watch us because they know that we play such an exciting brand of cricket. It was only a couple of games ago against South Africa when we got 400<\/a>, so we\u2019re not a million miles away. It\u2019s just about a couple of scores here and there and then we nail it down, and hopefully we do find that template we can keep going forward with.\u201d<\/p>\n England\u2019s batters have underperformed so badly in this series that Jamie Overton, the No 8, outscored all of them but Brook in the first game and all of them including Brook in the second, without himself reaching 50. The team\u2019s struggles in the format are such that they have dipped to eighth in the world rankings, with West Indies and Bangladesh close behind.<\/p>\n If they are still likely to qualify for the 2027 World Cup continued poor results could insert an embarrassing kink into the process. Places will be given to the top eight teams in the rankings on 31 March 2027, excluding co-hosts South Africa, currently sixth, and Zimbabwe, who are 11th. The next two teams on the list will be forced to battle through a 10-team qualifying tournament to claim a spot.<\/p>\n England\u2019s fixtures over the next 13 months are unlikely to offer many easy ranking points. Before February 2027 they will play three-game series against India and Sri Lanka at home, and away in Sri Lanka, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan \u2013 the latter as part of a tri-series also featuring Sri Lanka (again).<\/p>\n Including Saturday\u2019s final fixture against New Zealand they have 20 ODIs scheduled before the qualifying deadline, of which 14 are away and all are against sides currently ranked in the top six. Meanwhile both Bangladesh and West Indies, ninth and 10th in the rankings, play the majority of their games at home, with the former having multiple opportunities to boost their points total in series against theoretically lesser opponents, with five games against Zimbabwe and six against Ireland.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Quick GuidePossible teams for third ODIShow<\/p>\n New Zealand: Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Zakary Foulkes, Blair Tickner, Jacob Duffy.<\/p>\n England: Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer.<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n Though Saturday\u2019s game in Wellington is a dead rubber, with New Zealand 2-0 up in the series after a pair of one-sided victories, beating the side currently sitting second in the rankings would provide handy points, which under the ICC\u2019s formula would be boosted because of the Black Caps\u2019 high rating.<\/p>\n