England’s youngsters put absentees on notice

Bangladesh

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England’s inexperienced one-day side has been lauded for overcoming a ‘daunting’ experience to halt Bangladesh’s run of six home series win in a row.

Having already been without Alex Hales, Joe Root and Eoin Morgan from their first-choice batting order, Jason Roy was ruled out of the deciding match in Chittagong. However, stepping seamlessly into the breach, Sam Billings struck his maiden ODI fifty while Ben Duckett made his second in his debut series.

England also had to respond to the heated conclusion to the second match in Mirpur where Jos Buttler reacted angrily to Bangladesh’s celebrations of his wicket before Ben Stokes and Tamim Iqbal confronted each other during the post-match handshakes. Alongside the unprecedented security which has accompanied the team’s every move, and the partisan home support, there has been plenty for the squad to deal with.

“For some of us who have been around for a little while it’s still been quite an interesting, daunting trip,” Paul Farbrace, the assistant coach, said. “There’s been a lot around this tour – whether we should come or not come, whether the players would come. You get here and you see the guns and SWAT team. That’s quite a lot for young blokes to take on board. The ones who have come will go away with a series win in a spicy series, but for a lot of young blokes it’s been a good learning experience too.

“On field there are huge positives and, in the end, it is probably a good thing that some didn’t come. When you think about it, last night four of the top six who don’t regularly play chased down a very tricky score. We felt we were very capable of getting it, but it did take some decent batting to get there. To win, but win it with a few different players, as well as the off-field experience, that can only be good.”

Farbrace said that Morgan will “definitely” captain the one-day side in India next January, but he praised the way that Buttler had dealt with the various pressures of the leadership experience – not least the lessons learnt from his reaction in Mirpur which led to a rap on the knuckles from the ICC but strong support from former England captains Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain.

“Morgs is the leader, but it’s been great that Jos has had the experience,” Farbrace said. “He will definitely be captain in India. There can’t be any way around it. He deserves it. His team is continually improving, and he has definitely been the leader and allowed so many guys to play that way.

“On and off the field, we have seen Jos has more to him than others thought. He doesn’t say a great deal, but when he does, people listen. The cricket challenge is only one side. He has been very impressive with everything he dealt with, even the skirmishes in that second game, the way he dealt with that was very good. It was a great learning experience for him.

“The emotional side of it he has found quite tough, and selection is tough too. You go from being one of the lads with mates in the team, to knocking on their door and saying you’re not playing. I don’t think you could get a tougher series to start off with as captain, because there has been as much said about the off-the-field stuff as on the field.”

Stokes was named Man of the Series after sealing the decisive chase with a calm, unbeaten 47 to follow his maiden ODI century in the second match. He also made a telling intervention in the field during the opening game when he pulled the team together as the match was slipping away. His maturing role with the bat – he has averaged 49.00 this year in ODIs – was vital in a young batting order.

“Stokes is a leader, wherever he goes, people want to go with him.” Farbrace said. “That’s why he can get involved in some spats. We saw last night, he was not getting out and losing that game. He was determined to see it home. The two innings here, are two of his best for England in white-ball cricket. The 100 was about as mature as I’ve seen him play.”