3 World Cup lessons England must learn from Tri Series final

England’s capitulation in the Carlton Mid Tri Series was a sad end to what has been a productive tournament for Eoin Morgan’s new side.

That said, there is still plenty of room for improvement for the 8/1 World Cup hopefuls, starting with learning these three lessons:

Find a better strategy for the death overs

Chris Woakes has managed to keep Chris Jordan out of the side because of his ability to bowl controlled overs at the end of the innings.

He had an off day in the Tri Series final, going for 89 runs off his 10 overs, 22 of which came in his final four deliveries to James Faulkner.

While every death bowler goes over the boundary in their final overs every once in a while, Woakes can give himself the opportunity to reduce that likelihood if he operated with a more consistent strategy.

Mixing between short balls and yorkers doesn’t allow Morgan to set a field that covers all boundary options for the two. Sticking to bowling six balls of either one or the other is a far better decision.

Use Ravi Bopara like an all-rounder

With Woakes clearly struggling, Morgan’s decision to bowl him for his full compliment was a puzzling one considering Bopara has regularly shown himself to be a useful fill-in bowler in these situations.

As the Essex man is short of runs, his lack of overs with the ball has him fighting for his place in the side. If he was able to contribute as a bowler he would be seen to hold a greater worth to the side.

The rest of the squad are in danger of rusting

England have 15 men in their squad for the World Cup and three of them have sat on the sidelines and watched the warm-up matches in Australia pass them by.

Should Gary Ballance, Alex Hales or James Tredwell be called upon now they will find it very difficult to come in and produce immediately considering they haven’t had the chance to play any meaningful cricket.

Jordan also falls into that category having played just one of the five Carlton Mid Tri series games. This is poor squad management from the hosts.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

Fancy a flutter? Sign up today to claim up to £25 in free bets.