Carlton Mid Tri-Series: Nasser Hussain on England, Australia and India

Australia won the Carlton Mid Tri-Series with England securing second spot and India trailing in third – but what did we glean from the sides ahead of the World Cup? Nasser Hussain shares his thoughts…

Ian Bell has moved on from pretty thirties…

We all know Bell is a very fine player and because of his excellent timing of the ball he should always be a prominent player in Australia. But what he’s done over the last couple of weeks is precisely what he should have done all the way through his ODI career: got big runs or gone early. Only Ian will know why he has been able to do better in the Tri-Series than the pretty thirties and forties he had got previously, but perhaps after getting that massive hundred in the warm-up game against the Prime Minister’s XI he realised he had time.

Maybe it’s because he knows he will get pace on the ball in Australia, whereas in the subcontinent the pace can come off and as he is an elegant player, not a power one, he can’t quite burst the field. Whatever it is, all credit to him for showing that he wants to go big and why he should have been in the side all along. Ian is a guy that needs pushing and prodding and being left out in Sri Lanka was probably a good wake-up call for him, so fair play to the selectors for that, too, and also for bringing him back, because after Cook was left out there were plenty of people, myself included, saying Alex Hales should open.

Eoin Morgan is an enterprising captain but needs runs…

Bopara only got through three overs in the entire Tri-Series but I think he can be very effective sneaking in overs in the middle of an innings and taking pace off the ball.

I thought Morgan was very proactive with his captaincy and he was always going to be more of a risk-taker than Cook; that’s the sort of character he is. At times he takes the attacking angle and keeps slips in, while he has also gone for an in-your-face bowling line-up by playing Steven Finn. The one thing I would say, though, is that I would like him to have a bit more faith in Ravi Bopara as a bowler. Bopara only got through three overs in the entire Tri-Series but I think he can be very effective sneaking in overs in the middle of an innings and taking pace off the ball.

As for Morgan’s batting, it was a little bit too much feast or famine. He started really well with the hundred against Australia and I thought that would be a turning point and that he would kick on, but he didn’t quite manage it. He is finding ways of getting out cheaply so hopefully that is a blip and he is back on song for the World Cup, where he will need to be explosive in the middle overs if England are to have a good tournament. What’s for sure, though, is that Australia will be wary of him. Morgan’s general record against them is superb and he will be looked at by Australia and the other big boys as a massive threat.

England’s bowling unit has found its teeth when conditions suit…

I was a little bit worried for England’s bowlers if the new white ball didn’t swing in Australia but it has done. It will do in New Zealand as well so that is a big boost. I also think England have seen positive signs from their bowlers. Anderson remains one of the best in the world when the ball swings and while Broad always takes time to come back from an injury and looked short of rhythm and pace in the first few games, he has got better and better and will give England vital bounce in the World Cup. I also thought Finn was pretty good, to be honest. He seemed to have more pace and flow than he had in Sri Lanka and he has always been a wicket-taking bowler in the right conditions, something he gets at Brisbane and Perth. I do, though, think you need to pick Finn wisely and there might be a situation where on a drop-in pitch you leave him out for the second spinner, James Tredwell.

The death bowling also needs to be nailed. I know you can’t always go yorkers because if you don’t get them spot on they disappear out of the ground but England must use their slower ball bouncers shrewdly. Sunday’s final was a great example of that. It was a perfect ploy against Brad Haddin, who loves pace on the ball, but not against Faulkner, who clumps those deliveries away like a baseball player. Woakes got it wrong on Sunday but he has shown for both England and Warwickshire that he can be good at the death, while stats also suggest Anderson might not be the best bowler at the end and maybe should use his overs early. All in all, England just need to finish games better.

Australia are in great shape but India need their batsmen to fire…

Australia are the favourites and my favourites for the World Cup. They have pretty much every base covered, with Mitchell Johnson coming back in, explosive openers and big players in the middle order in Steven Smith and, probably, Michael Clarke. This injury to Faulkner is something we should keep across, though, because if he was ruled out it would be a big miss as he is a seriously good one-day cricketer and their finisher.

India, meanwhile, will be very dependent on conditions, much like England but vice versa. If there is pace and bounce in a wicket they could be blown away but not all pitches in Australia and New Zealand will have pace; there will be some drop-in tracks and some tired surfaces as we get towards the end of the summer over there.

The key for India is to get their best XI on the park. They need Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja fit and their batsmen firing because they are never going to have the strongest bowling unit in Australian conditions. With Dhawan out of nick they need to work out who will open with Sharma but if their batting works and they don’t just rely on Kohli and Rohit, they shouldn’t be discounted.