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One day England will get it right - but the odds are it won't be against New Zealand

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Andrew Hughes can only see one solution to England's opening struggles and his name begins with a K

How did it go so wrong so quickly? England's 50-over credit, so carefully accumulated against India and Sri Lanka has been squandered in two breathtakingly reckless games. They are now as high as [6.0] to win the one-day series with New Zealand. But the shellacking that England took in Hamilton as Ryder and McCullum brutalised their way to a ten wicket massacre not only all but ended our prospects of winning the series, it threw into sharp relief a consistent failing in ODI cricket.

Since December 2006, England have played 36 One-Dayers and have registered a century opening partnership just once, against Canada in the World Cup. The average score for the first wicket has been a paltry 24.19. This failure has been perpetuated despite a change of coach, captain and eight different opening permutations. The Twenty20 opening partnerships haven't been much more successful either. Over that same period, we have played ten Twenty20s and used six different pairings.

But you don't have to dig too deeply to find the root of the problem. To take advantage of the fielding restrictions in the early stages of limited overs games, at least one of your opening batsmen should be an international class strokeplayer, able to hit boundaries from ball one. Put simply, since Marcus Trescothick left the international scene, England have been unable to find an adequate replacement.

Initially, Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan were given the task of laying the batting foundations, alongside newcomers like Mal Loye and Ed Joyce. This failed because Strauss and Vaughan are not quick scorers (and the same goes for the current senior opener, Alastair Cook). Consequently, Loye and Joyce found themselves under pressure to do most of the scoring at the same time as finding their feet in international cricket, a nigh-on impossible task. Since the World Cup, there has been a reversion to the idea of the 'pinch-hitter' with first Matt Prior and now Phil Mustard filling that role. But this approach is equally flawed. When teams started to use pinch hitters, in the early 1990s, they were genuine stroke makers like Botham and Jayasuriya, not over-promoted county sloggers. Mustard might get away with opening for Durham in the Pro-40 hit-and-giggle but taking first strike for England in a high pressure international is a whole different kettle of condiment.

But what is the solution? Well, we here at Betfair are always ready to offer helpful suggestions. Naturally, Geoff Miller's first telephone call after the Hamilton debacle should have been to a Taunton number. But assuming Trescothick is still not ready to return to the international fold, his second call should have been to track down one Vikram Solanki. It isn't as crazy as it sounds. Solanki is a pure stroke maker, indeed his inability to restrain his natural attacking instincts are what made him unsuited to Test cricket. He is experienced in limited overs internationals and his partnership with Darren Maddy in the Twenty20 World Championships was the only England opening partnership to average over 50 runs in the last year. Unfortunately, Solanki is at the moment a cricketing outlaw and Miller's comments on the ICL rebels were unequivocally negative. So that just leaves one free scoring attacking English batsman, capable of hitting boundaries from ball one with the necessary international experience. Step forward KP. He should be asked to open the batting whilst Alastair Cook drops anchor, allowing Phil Mustard the chance of establishing an international career in a more realistic middle-order position.

It won't happen, of course. England are likely to persist with the stodgy pairing of Cook and Mustard for Friday's third match in Auckland. Mascarenhas will probably come in for Bopara and there may be room for Luke Wright somewhere. But more is required than mere changes in personnel. For the first time in the series, even the weight of the patriotic pound can't make England favourites and they are currently trading at [2.0] with the hosts on [1.9]. And whilst England's openers are a problem, New Zealand's first wicket pairing is such a strength that opener Brendon McCullum is shortest priced at [3.65] to be their top batsman.

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