England’s ‘utter humiliation’ is complete amid attempt to mimic Aussies

England’s Champions Trophy has ended in disaster with the Poms exposed for a miserable attempt to mimic their Australian rivals.

England’s focus shifts quickly towards the 2027 World Cup after Jos Buttler’s men were bundled out of the Champions Trophy with three humbling group-stage defeats.

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The 2019 world champions, now mentored by Bazball supremo Brendon McCullum, hardly threw a punch across their 50-over campaign, suffering losses to Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa. It marked first time England had failed to muster a victory in an ICC tournament where they played more than one match.

On Saturday, the Proteas cruised towards a thumping seven-wicket triumph in Karachi, which marked England’s seventh-straight defeat in the format — not since 2001 has England lost more consecutive men’s ODIs.

In Karachi, England was rolled for 179 in 38.2 overs, comfortably the lowest team total of the tournament. Departing captain Jos Buttler struck a boundaryless 21 (43), while opener Phil Salt and all-rounder Liam Livingstone finished their sorry campaigns with scores of 8 and 9 respectively.

“That is a really disappointing performance. We are so far short of the mark there today. It is really disappointing,” Buttler said during the post-match presentation.

“We are just not going on and making those big, telling contributions with the bat, which has been the story of the side for a little bit of time now.”

England's Liam Livingstone. Photo by Asif HASSAN / AFP

Since the start of the 2023 World Cup, England has lost 19 out of 26 ODIs, but former captain Michael Atherton argued the team had “left the worst until last”.

“That was a shocking performance from a team that was lacking in any kind of confidence now. England have been on a roll for a while in ODI cricket and it’s very hard to turn it around,” Atherton said on Sky Sports.

“This has been their third shocking tournament in a row, but they don’t play now for a while. It’s time for a reset.”

He continued: “A dreadful performance just symptomatic of a team whose confidence has drained away when you think of the defeats they’ve suffered - not just in this tournament but going back to the India tour and then over a period of time.

“Eventually that confidence just dissipates and that was reflected in that performance today.”

The Daily Mail’s Richard Gibson branded England’s Champions Trophy campaign an “utter humiliation”.

“Quite frankly, it is hard to recall a worse England one-day team than this,” he wrote.

BBC reporter Matthew Henry criticised the team’s batting, arguing several members of England’s top order continue to throw away their wicket with reckless shot selection.

“While there is some merit in McCullum words - relaxing his players and removing the fear of failure is what has helped him turn around the fortunes of the Test side alongside Ben Stokes - it was not the reason Phil Salt and Jamie Smith gave away their wickets,” Henry wrote.

“Attacking shots are causing England’s downfall, not tentative prods. There is more at play here - muddled minds aplenty.”

Elsewhere, The Times’ Simon Wilde accused England of attempting to copy Australia by packing the attack with pace bowlers in each format.

“High-octane batting and high-pace bowling are nice ideas but they do not sit well with the nuanced world of short-format cricket,” Wilde penned.

“The ambition to deploy the best fast bowlers across all formats is surely just another example of a slavish desire to copy Australia, for whom Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have delivered so much in big events.”

England's Jofra Archer. Photo by Asif HASSAN / AFP

The next major 50-over tournament is the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, giving McCullum more than two years to map out a rebuild.

“As a group we are obviously not getting the results and that takes away some confidence,” Buttler said.

“It is time for everyone to go away, have a change of scenery and work hard for wherever cricket takes them next.

“From this point forward, there is a huge opportunity for everyone inside the dressing room, and obviously people outside the dressing room, to really put their hand up and say they want to be part of the rebuild of the England white-ball teams.”

He added: “There is no doubt the talent is there. There is all the makings of putting together a really good side. And I’m sure Brendon and the guys at the top will formulate some plans.

“It is down to individuals as well to put their hand up and say that they want to be part of something moving forward and get the team back to where it should be.”

England seamer Chris Woakes continued on BBC Sounds: “Jos will be disappointed. It’s not the way he will have wanted to sign-off. They haven’t shown what they are capable of. On paper, this is a team that no-one should want to come up against. But they are just struggling to perform at the moment. A new voice is needed, but Jos is still one of the best players in the world and will still be integral to this England side.”

Originally published as England’s ‘utter humiliation’ is complete amid attempt to mimic Aussies