England, Netherlands collide with eyes on Champions Trophy qualification

For Jos Buttler's team, the World Cup campaign has turned into a catastrophe. Never before have the defending World Cup champions exhibited such pusillanimity and plummeted to such abysmal depths. Currently, England find themselves at the bottom of the points table, even lower than the 14th-ranked Netherlands, their adversaries in the penultimate game scheduled for Wednesday, (November 8) in Pune.

With their chances of defending the title gone, the postmortem has already begun. Some of the points under debate include whether skipper Buttler and coach Matthew Mott should continue in their roles; whether the team is too old for the 50-over format (their average age is close to 32 years, not too old, but not in the prime of cricketing youth either); whether English white-ball cricket needs another reset similar to the one in 2015; or whether they are too fixated on the Bazball?

Maybe England could have fared better with a Bazball-style approach in the World Cup, playing positively both in attack and defence. However, there was no sign of such play in their seven games so far, and they were largely off-color, and sometimes even timid, like they were against India for instance. Every side they faced seemed capable of beating them. One school of thought is that they may have failed to adjust to the varying conditions of the different venues in India, where they have played six different venues spread across the length and breadth of the country, unlike in England where conditions are largely similar. As Moeen Ali recently remarked, the writing was on the wall, and nobody saw it.

But the Dutch still regard England as a formidable side despite their current ills and vulnerabilities. "England are world champions. So, I think they would do what's necessary. They've prepared just as much. And, in South Africa, where I'm from, there's a famous saying about never underestimating a wounded buffalo. So, I think we sit in a position where England's one of the best teams in the world. And irrespective of how they're playing, they can produce incredible performances at any moment. So that's what we're preparing for, the best England possible," Netherlands' support staff member Ryan van Niekerk said.

With a semifinal berth out of their reach, England now aims to avoid the ignominy of failing to qualify for the Champions Trophy. In this revised mission, they need a win against the Dutch, who have proven themselves to be no pushovers with two wins in seven games, one more than England. In this context, the Wednesday contest holds significance.

"Absolutely, I don't think there's ever a dead rubber when you play for England to be honest, I think the lads are completely up for -- we've got two games in which we need to win both to qualify for the for the Champions Trophy, so I think that's there for everybody to see and the guys are going to be obviously up for it and I think we'll be good tomorrow," said team's fielding coach Carl Hopkinson on the eve of the game.

A win for either side tomorrow could significantly improve their chances of qualifying for the Champions Trophy, a fact England only became aware of a week ago, and the Dutch had not entertained such thoughts until recently.

When: England vs Netherlands on November 8 at 2:00 PM local

Where: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune

What to expect: A decent batting surface is again expected. Two of the three World Cup games here have been won by teams chasing.

Team watch

England

Harry Brook, who last played on October 21 against South Africa, could come in for England. Gus Atkinson may get a go too.

Tactics & Strategy

Bas de Leede and Paul van Meekeran have picked 15 wickets between them in PowerPlay 2 (overs 11-40) in the tournament, and their threat with the old ball will be something England will have to be wary of.

Probable XI:Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes/Harry Brook, Jos Buttler(w/c), Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood/Gus Atkinson

Netherlands

The Dutch are likely to stick with the same side for this crucial match.

Tactics & Strategy

The lack of solid opening partnerships have been an issue for Netherlands. Their opening stands in the tournament read 28, 21, 22, 7, 28, 3 and 3. In their last game, they dropped Vikramjit Singh and instead had Wesley Barresi open the batting, and they are likely to stick with the same combination and back them to fare better this time around.

Probable XI:Wesley Barresi, Max ODowd, Colin Ackermann, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards(w/c), Bas de Leede, Saqib Zulfiqar, Logan van Beek, Roelof van der Merwe, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren

Did you know?

- Netherlands have lost all their six ODIs against England

- Max O'Dowd has a batting average of 14 and a strike-rate of 70 across seven games

- Jonny Bairstow has an ODI hundred in Pune

- Joe Root has scored a total of 18 runs in his last four games

What they said

I think cricket can be a game of - It's about executing under pressure, isn't it? Everybody knows that, and I think this team has been well known for doing that really, really well. It's an incredibly skilful team, it's a very talented team, but at key moments in certain situations, we haven't executed under pressure like we normally do: England fielding coach Carl Hopkinson on what went wrong for the side

Not necessarily - I would say that England they're preparing as they know how and they as I said they're world champions for a reason This is the same group that won, a similar group that won the World Cup not so long ago: Dutch coaching staff member Ryan van Niekerk on whether it is the best time to beat the world champions