England Cricket / Editor / 14 February 2007 /

England head to the upcoming World Cup with renewed confidence after the triumphant climax to their tour of Australia. Expectations might not be as high as when they arrived in Australia in November, but quiet confidence might help their campaign more than the hysteria that accompanied the Ashes series.

Their impressive performances in the later stages of the Commonwealth Bank One Day series not only proved that they can beat the Aussies on a regular basis, but also reinforced how disappointing their Test displays were.

An injury ravaged outfit could stand up to the hosts in the shorter form of the game, but the Test side was continually found wanting during the main contest. England's lacklustre surrendering of the urn, compared to their gutsy fight back in the One Dayers made something of a mockery of their preference for the Test format.

The winning of the One Day series was nonetheless scant consolation in a hugely disappointing tour, and the England hierarchy will be keen to press on with the official review of where the tour went wrong, rather than getting carried away with the unexpected late success. The customary disappointing World Cup campaign will dissolve any hopes of a sudden improvement in limited overs cricket.

The ECB's review panel is to be headed by former golf administrator Ken Schofield, and will include six former England players, led by former skipper Nasser Hussain. Their remit is to analyse the team's performances over the last four years and to suggest improvements that will help England regain the Ashes in the home series of 2009.

The selection policy is likely to come under close scrutiny, with much criticism already aimed at the amount of influence wielded by coach and captain. The selection of Ashley Giles, Geraint Jones and Jimmy Anderson for the first Test had pundits suggesting that Duncan Fletcher and Andrew Flintoff made their own choices in the absence of chairman of selectors David Graveney.

Graveney was instrumental in promoting Monty Panesar, Chris Read and Sajid Mahmood to the line-up that beat Pakistan in last season's second Test series, but their subsequent removal from a winning team hinted at a disjointed selection policy that placed too much emphasis on past performances. Giles and Anderson's lack of action due to injury highlighted their inclusion as a risky option, not the safe choice it was supposed to be.

Regardless of England's performance in the Caribbean, Fletcher looks set to continue in his rolling contract as coach, and whilst he has admitted that mistakes were made Down Under, he has pointed to the team's injury crisis as the main reason for Australia's emphatic Ashes victory.

The loss of Simon Jones, Marcus Trescothick and above all captain Michael Vaughan - men who between them contributed 823 runs and 18 wickets to the 2005 triumph - was undoubtedly a huge blow to their hopes, but the performances of those who did feature in the Ashes were not good enough.

No bowler took more than 13 wickets in the series and only three centuries were recorded by English batsmen. All four of the premier Aussie bowlers took at least 20 wickets and their batsmen hit nine tons between them. Many have suggested England under-performed due to a lack of practice and the structure of future tours will be another topic up for discussion by the review team.

England only played one first-class match before the opener at the Gabba, and it was clear from the outset that the team were under prepared to deal with the inevitably focused and fired up hosts. Steve Harmison had bowled just 25 overs on tour and the infamous wide he delivered on that first morning set the tone for a tentative bowling display that was hardly surprising in the circumstances: none of Flintoff, Anderson and Giles had bowled in Test cricket since early June.

If the battering at Brisbane established Australia's superiority and the defeat at Perth decided the destination of the Ashes, England's collapse at Adelaide was the killer blow that really sealed the tourists' fate.

England were in control of that second Test match until the final morning, when they subsided in the face of sustained Aussie pressure in three sessions that exemplified the hosts' superior ability to dominate at crucial times. England thrived on those pressure situations in 2005, but this time around they wilted.

Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood totally dominated the Australian bowlers in the first two days of that clash and they were the only batsmen to emerge from the series with real credit, with respective run tallies of 490 and 433.

Alastair Cook and Ian Bell both proved that they could perform against the Aussies, albeit sporadically, and their exposure to such top quality bowling was perhaps the best thing to come from the Test series.

Indeed, the whole of England's squad - with the exception of Giles - is likely to be available for the next Ashes series and they will be better equipped to face an opposition that is likely to be in transition.

Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden seem set to follow their fellow veterans into retirement in the not to distant future and whilst the emergence of Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson suggests the fast bowling cupboard is far from bare, replacing Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath is a far tougher prospect.

Should Australia surrender the Ashes in 2009 it will perhaps be they who will point to the young and inexperienced nature of their side, as Fletcher and co have repeatedly done this time. England must hope that Bell, Cook, Mahmood, Panesar and Liam Plunkett continue to develop, so that they can consistently produce against Australia the form they have shown against other teams.

England's ODI plans were in total disarray just a fortnight ago, but they suddenly seem to have clicked into place just in time for the World Cup. A run of five defeats from six at the start of the series suggested they were continuing in the dismal form of last year.

2006 brought five wins and 14 losses, but four straight wins, including three against the hosts, have rekindled their hopes. England had not won three consecutive ODIs against Australia for nearly 10 years.

England now have the luxury of going into the World Cup knowing what their best team is, and despite all the disappointments of the Test series, this tour has been successful in that they have learned that they do possess the players to succeed in ODIs as they generally have done in Tests.

The next Test assignment for England comes in May and June, when they entertain West Indies in four-match series and Fletcher's men then face India in three Tests, also at home, later in the summer.

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