After England’s reserve team put on an extraordinary
display of power in the third ODI against Ireland at Bristol, Matthew Mott,
England’s head coach, will fly out to India with the World Cup squad on
Wednesday night knowing that he has an enviable depth of options available to him
in white-ball cricket.
England scored a lot of runs in the first innings,
reaching 280 for 4 thanks to Ben Duckett’s first white-ball hundred and
additional half-centuries from Zak Crawley and Phil Salt (the latter from just
22 balls). However, a violent rainstorm ended the match after just 31 overs.
Despite missing each of the 15 players who have been
named for the World Cup, there was no let-up in England’s intent, from the
moment that Salt and Will Jacks came together to rack up an 87-run stand inside
seven overs.
“We were seeing some new faces, but it seemed a
bit like business as usual for the boys out there,” Mott told Sky Sports
after the abandonment. “A lot of this series has been about making sure we
go out there and play with that aggression that this team has been renowned for
for a while.
“They batted nice and free, and really took it on
today, which was great. We weren’t really sure what that wicket would be like,
to be honest, it’s been quite wet here and been under covers for a few days. But
it was really positive way to approach the game.”
The intensity of England’s batting was perhaps
heightened by the knowledge that nothing is yet set in stone when it comes to
the identity of potential World Cup replacements, in the event of injury for any
of the senior squad members.
“We’ve obviously picked that 15 for the World Cup
and, until we get injury or illness, they’ll serve us well,” Mott said.
“The good thing about an India series, as opposed to Australia, is the
fact that it’s not a big flight away. We can call up people at pretty short
notice and travel quite lean as well. Obviously Jofra will be there, but a lot
of that is around him getting the servicing that he needs to get back to full
fitness.
“Obviously, there’s some players that know they’re
on the periphery of the team and missed out. But when you get an injury in a
World Cup, it might seem obvious from the outside [who the replacement should
be] but there’s other things that go on inside the camp that other people
aren’t privy to, and what we might need to cover. So, as much as we can, we’ll
keep that that option open.”