Great team effort from Bangladesh won the day

It’s second nature for Australians to rejoice when England lose, but I have to admit feeling some sadness at the manner of their exit. It’s inconceivable that English players play limited overs cricket week in and week out in the County circuit but still look so disjointed and lacking in self-belief.

Their whole campaign, right from the opening game lacked spark and innovation. They seemed to have decided on team and planning at the very last minute. The omission of Alistair Cook was far too late for the next captain to get any time with the team. When the Australian selectors decided that they were looking beyond yours truly for the 2003 World Cup, they omitted me in 2001 itself so that Rick Ponting got enough time to work with the team.

It’s not yet clear whether leadership comes naturally to Eoin Morgan, but his personal form must not have helped. There seemed to be no planning, no dynamism and no freshness. The brand of one-day cricket they were playing seemed to be the 1987 version, which is seriously out of sync with the power game of today.

The establishment need to look ahead and work towards building the core for a team that looks to the future. Chris Woakes, Alex Hales, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali look like quality players who need to be backed. A firm call needs to be taken on whether James Anderson, Ian Bell and Stuart Broad fit into the future plans of the team.

However, none of this should take away from the performance of Mashrafe Mortaza’s young, charged Bangladesh side. The batsmen got enough on the board and the bowlers managed to hold their nerve under severe pressure. Rubel Hossain was exceptional at the end when England looked like they might just cross the line, especially after a catch was dropped. Eventually, it was a spirited team effort from both the batsmen and the bowlers that exposed the limitations of an off-colour England side. Bangladesh have under-performed as a team for a long time, and one hopes this is the shot in the arm that their team needed.

Nothing to really report from the India-Ireland match as India continued to be the best team on view. I must say that the defending champions might have been challenged a bit more if Ireland had taken their opportunities. They were poised for a bigger total before they had a collapse and more critically, dropped some crucial catches, which let the Indian batsmen prosper.

India now ready themselves for one more game before the quarter-finals, but their fans might already be celebrating the form their team has shown so far. Nine wins on the trot and 50 wickets in five matches all show that they are serious contenders.

I caught the Australia-Sri Lanka match a couple of days ago. What a wonderful day of cricket it was! Glenn Maxwell is the X-factor player in the Australian team and, if they go all the way, he would have a big role to play. His century announced that he and AB de Villiers are the two big draws of the tournament. They are playing in a different gear at the moment.

— Gameplan