Former England captain Nasser Hussain feels that England missed the services of Ben Stokes in their opening encounter against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The defending champions suffered a humiliating defeat of nine wickets in the World Cup opener, as England were no match to the opponents in the opening game of the marquee event.
Ben Stokes, who had earlier declared his retirement from ODI cricket returned to the squad after taking his retirement back from the game and was the team’s second-highest run scorer in the ODI series against New Zealand before the ODI World Cup but could not take the field for the opening game due to an injury.
In his column for Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain feels that England missed the skill of Ben Stokes to help them achieve a high score in the game and was happy that his defeat came at the early stage of the tournament rather than being the backend of the event.
“England missed the nous of Ben Stokes to get them above par and they will just have to be better from now on. The one good thing is that perhaps they have got their bad performance out of the way early – if they did this in the semi-finals it would be all over,” Nasser Hussain said.
Ben Stokes experienced hip discomfort before the opening game. The England cricket team decided to rest their talisman for the opening match because they didn’t want to risk him so early in the competition and the defending champions went in with Harry Brook for the encounter in the game which did not work in the favour in Ahmedabad.
It Is Rare For An England White-ball Side To Be Outclassed These Days – Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain warned that defending champions England can let slip away too much in the tournament, as they have got high-quality teams tournament and admitted that it was one of the rare days in English cricket in recent times, where they were completely outplayed by the opponents in any format of the game.
“There are a lot of good teams in this tournament and if England are to get into the top four they cannot afford much more slip-ups. England were simply not at the races. It was one of those days when they were well below par and the opposition were excellent. It is rare for an England white-ball side to be outclassed these days but that was the case yesterday,” Nasser Hussain added.
Both England batters and bowlers failed to step up for their team in the opening game, especially the English bowlers who were unable to withstand the ruthless attack of Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, and they lost the game in fewer than 37 overs.