England end calendar year without a Test, T20I series win

In November last year, England were basking in the glory of being champions of two World Cups. They were defending champions of ODI World Cup, which they won in 2019, and the T20 World Cup, which they clinched in Australia. The Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler-captained teams had dominated world cricket in the white-ball format. In Test matches, the partnership of skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, nicknamed ‘Baz’, which gained the moniker ‘Bazball’, had reaped rich dividends. The team’s all-out attack mode saw them chase wins even when a cautious approach made more sense. In June, approaching the historic Ashes, they had won 12 of last 17 Test matches. It was a massive turnaround for a team that had won just one of their previous 17 Tests before Bazball took over. At the end of 2023, England’s dominance has evaporated in all formats. For various reasons, the team has gone into a freefall and finished the year without a T20I or Test series win. The year began with a rescheduled tour of South Africa to play three ODIs. It ended with South Africa winning 2-1. In February, England made the long trip to New Zealand for a two-match Test series. England won the opener by a massive 267 runs but the Black Caps levelled matters in the next Test in thrilling fashion to triumph by just 1 run. England then played Bangladesh in three ODIs and three T20Is series. In the first trip to the sub-continent nation for England since 2016, they won the ODI series 2-1 but were whitewashed 0-3 in the T20Is. After a two month break due to the Indian Premier League (IPL), England returned for the home season with a one-off Test against Ireland. Not surprisingly, Stokes-led team won by 10 wickets but this was more a precursor for bigger things - the Ashes. In the first big test of the Bazball formula, Australia made the journey to face their historic rivals in the traditional five-match Test series. Bazball come under intense scrutiny after the first Test as England were seemingly over-aggressive in declaring early on the first day. That made the difference in the end as Australia won by two-wickets. Australia would then win the second Test before England would roar back to reduce the deficit in the third and level the series in the fifth. Unluckily for England, though, they had a great chance in the fourth Test but were denied by the weather. It was New Zealand’s turn to travel to England in the last week of August. The four match T20I series ended in a 2-2 draw as England threw away a 2-0 advantage. In the ODI series that followed, England won 3-1. Ireland made the short trip to England once again for a three-match ODI series. Once again, England triumphed, by 1-0, with rain denying more cricket. Then came the big one: the ODI World Cup. Spread across October and November in India, England produced a dismal show to exit in the group stages - losing to New Zealand, Afghanistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Australia - with a seventh place. After a dreadful World Cup, England’s return to the Caribbean in a white-ball only series would have helped boost morale but that didn’t prove to be the case. The Jos Buttler-captained England lost the ODI series 2-1 and the T20I series 3-2 albeit by coming from 0-2 down to force a decider.