yuppie wrote:England are doing well but this team would not get close to the 2015 Australian team
While the point is debatable, the extent of your over confidence in it is clearly not. I am not sure you can state with any certainty that Australias team in 2015 was better than England currently possess, but to say "would not get close" is to put it at an extreme level. Clearly have an advantage in the bowling department, but id say England have an equal advantage in the explosiveness of their batting.
The openers probably cancel out, but favour England on paper. Bairstow gives up a slight SR advantage to Warner, but average 6-7 runs more. Finch and Roy average the same, but Roys Strike rate is 105, Finch in the high 80s. Smith averages more than Hales, but Hales makes up a 10 SR advantage. Clarke gives up another 10 SR to Root, and a significant average loss of another 6-7 runs. Buttler and Maxwell are both extreme hitters, but Buttler has the better run scoring record. Morgan and Watson historically add up well, with Watson the slightly better record on both regards, yet Watson was a spent force and hadnt been at his best for 3 years ( his record as a batter was not great but decent, his record as a bowler late in his career no longer justifies a tag as all rounder, he had become useless)..... Morgan averaged 46 at near 100SR last year, so I know who id favour at this respective time. Faulker v Stokes is very equal. Moeen vs Haddin is equal in runs scored per innings, but again Haddin gives up 25plus SR to Moeen.
It gets worse as you go down the order. With Stokes in, Wood out, there is a distinct possibility that, as has occurred a lot recently, England either have a number 11 who averages over 20 at a plus 100SR coming in, and whats more to boot, its either been a player with nearly 50 first class half-centuries and a sizeable amount of 100s, or another who who has a mere 25 odd with 3 hundreds. Hazlewood has a best score of 11, Rashid and Plunkett both have ODI 50s scored pretty recently (and I believe they were both against the last time round world cup finalists, so no minnow smashing either).
Its arguable if there has ever been a team with such firepower all the way down to 11 in ODIs. And that means that even if you take wickets regularly, this team has the capacity to still score very big. And if you dont take wickets, then the last 20 overs is going to get very messy for you, because you are going to get slaughtered.
Id always back the team with the batting depth and firepower to come through in ODIs, so Id be more inclined to favour England.
England are probably one class ODI bowler away from a period of real ODI prosperity. This current team has the potential to become a truly great ODI team.