The last match saw the England team lose 5 wickets for 12 runs and all 10 wickets for 47 runs; a truly humbling defeat. Any sports betting cricket fan would know having England to win any One Day International is not necessarily the best bet! They lost 6-1 in Australia, 5-0 in India 2 years ago and 5-0 again in 2011. In England’s last 20 overseas One Day matches, they have won only 5 - which is testimony of their poor form abroad.

This English squad was fresh from the high of beating India 4-0 in Test series and 3-0 in the One Days. So the manner of the defeat in India was shocking; especially with the present Indian squad missing 7 players, including Sachin Tendulkar, who were part of the team that won the World Cup against Sri Lanka in April.

England’s most obvious weakness was their batting; they couldn’t last the 50 overs in four of the five matches. They all struggled against the spin bowling, with only individual innings being over 70 runs. Also, there was no steady stream of runs; not enough running between the wickets and too much emphasis on getting fours and sixes in the first 10 overs of their innings - meaning there was always pressure during the innings.

Bowling was also lacking, with only Finn giving any concern to the Indian batsmen. Finally, Cook didn’t look comfortable; and his fielding tactics were too defensive. Also, it can be argued that he was more reactive as opposed to proactive.

So what’s the solution? It is obvious that cricket in England is different from abroad. In other countries, there are more flat wickets, without much pace, spin and green grass. So definitely more practice on this type of wickets would help - together with some sort of middle order that can actually bat!!