England pulled another rabbit from their Bazball hat by sending out Rehan Ahmed to open the batting in their second one-day international win over Sri Lanka in Colombo.
Joe Root’s conventional brilliance made the left-field decision immaterial, ending the 11-match losing streak in this format overseas with 75 from 90 balls.
The five-wicket victory also means an England ODI points ranking that has been rapidly declining for the past two years will not drop below its current value of 86 regardless of what happens in the final match of the series on Tuesday.
Lessons were clearly learnt from defeat in the opening match of the tour as England bowled more spin and then got ahead of the run rate in pursuit of a more modest 220.
But the decision to draft in Rehan Ahmed in place of knee injury victim Zak Crawley highlighted how they like to do things their own way.
Ahmed, 20, is an infectious, off-the-cuff cricketer who showed his value with a feisty 27 on Thursday evening, having arrived at the crease with England six wickets down.
Joe Root helped steer England to victory in their second ODI against Sri Lanka
England sent out Rehan Ahmed to bat as an opener in place of knee injury victim Zak Crawley
The Leicestershire all-rounder’s average batting position in his 14 previous 50-over matches for club and country was No 9, and he had never gone in higher than seven, and yet here he was asked to go in first in an international match.
Bazball aficionados will point to the success enjoyed by Jacob Bethell after being promoted to No 3 in the Test team in New Zealand 14 months ago despite not occupying that spot for Warwickshire.
Or the fact that Ahmed bats no 3 in County Championship cricket, scoring five hundreds last summer. Although that would be rich given the disregard England’s management have for domestic form.
In the week it was announced that Luke Wright would be leaving his post as national selector, England have carded two players at 10 and 11 in Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid with 28 first-class centuries between them.
Refusing to operate by the book, here they were backing Ahmed and Ben Duckett, a fifth different opening combination in 14 months, to guide their chase on a soporific surface at the Premadasa Stadium, despite Will Jacks, a player who has appeared eight times as an opener in ODIs, contributing two half-centuries and averaging 35.62, coming back from illness.
Last year, they thrust Jamie Smith to the top despite England’s Test wicketkeeper-batsman investing time and effort into becoming an effective middle-order player with Surrey.
Unaccustomed to the role, and facing spin inside the power play in Asian conditions, Ahmed missed a straight one from Dhananja De Silva.
It left Root, who struck a hundred in England’s biggest successful chase in Sri Lanka – of 240 in December 2014 – to dictate the tempo on what his captain Harry Brook said was ‘probably the worst pitch I’ve ever played on.’
Ahmed missed a straight one and was bowled by Dhananjaya de Silva
Harry Brook scored 42 in the chase and England won the match to level the series
England’s struggles with the bat against spin have been well documented, but they also lack threat when it’s their turn to bowl it.
All four of the spinners Brook used in Thursday’s 19-run defeat took the ball away from the right hander with their stock deliveries, but the recall of off-spinner Jacks following illness added variety, and recognising facing slower deliveries was like trying to hit a cannonball off quicksand, England employed six different spinners inside the first 30 overs.
Seamers Jamie Overton and Sam Curran had contributed 17 overs 48 hours earlier but here they were rationed to a combined nine – and it made the difference on a day when in a welcome contrast to the recent Ashes, England also claimed their chances.
