The architect of Bazball might not be who we thought it was

The most damning statistic of a horrendous Champions Trophy campaign is that Jofra Archer, a fast bowler who bats at No 9, outscored four of England’s top seven in this tournament.

Archer’s 60 runs across the three matches was better than Phil Salt (30), Jamie Smith (24), Harry Brook (47) and Liam Livingstone (33).

In terms of England’s tournament batting averages, only Ben Duckett and Joe Root were able to eclipse Archer’s 30.

No wonder England’s Champions Trophy campaign has been so awful.

But it is not just the batting. A one-dimensional bowling attack has also been exposed.

Archer has shown flashes of his quality, including taking two wickets in this final, humiliating seven-wicket defeat by South Africa in Karachi on Saturday.

Leg-spinner Adil Rashid has been his usual reliable self, despite figures that do not do him justice.

Everyone else has been found wanting.

Much of this is down to the coach, Brendon McCullum. His bold, or rather reckless, decision to promote Jamie Smith to No 3 has backfired so badly you wonder if this whole experience will scar the youngster for the months ahead.

And these are months in which England need a wicketkeeper-batter who took Test cricket by storm last summer to fire again in huge Test series at home to India and away to Australia.

Why was a 24-year-old who came into this winter having only played five one-day internationals promoted to a position he had previously played just once before in his 50-over career with Surrey? Even that came in 2019, when he was a teenager.

Salt has not so much underperformed in this tournament but gone positively subterranean.

In all, the opener has faced just 25 balls. Pick a random stranger from the crowd and they might not have done much worse.

Opting for a T20 approach in a format where there is time to craft a proper innings has been his downfall. But does he even know how to construct a one-day innings?

After all, he has played just 16 50-over matches at county level thanks to the schedule clash that for the past four summers has seen all the best English white-ball talent play in the Hundred, the divisive tournament that is played at the same time as the now second-rate One-Day Cup.

Livingstone, too, seems incapable of mastering his role as a finisher. When he comes in at No 7 late on in innings he invariably goes too hard and fails. When he comes in early, as was the case in this mauling by South Africa, he invariably goes too hard and fails.

His dismissal to Keshav Maharaj in England’s final game here, stumped dancing down the pitch to the left-arm spinner, should be the final act of a disappointing ODI career.

Brook, too, stunk the place out during an innings of 19 against South Africa, his form this winter a signal that perhaps the responsibility of succeeding Jos Buttler as captain come the summer might not be for him.

Like Smith, Brook’s poor form this winter is another worry in terms of the big challenges to come in Test cricket this year. He is England’s brightest young batting star who will be under huge pressure against India and Australia. Will this white-ball winter horror show affect him come the summer?

And will the negativity of this doomed Champions Trophy campaign infect the wider Test set-up? This was always the danger when McCullum took over as coach across all formats, especially because he has aligned the two camps more since coming in last month.

Like a virus that spreads, how does he take preventative measures to ensure the Test environment, helmed by an inspirational captain in Ben Stokes, is not negatively impacted this summer?

“I’m a positive person and like to make a positive environment,” McCullum said after this defeat.

“There is a fair bit of alignment across the set-ups now but at the same time there are guys who have been successful in Test cricket for the last little while so confidence is high.

“I think we’re a little further down the road with that. It’s not hard to see this is a slightly different task and we’ve got to put plans in place for the demands of white-ball and separate that.”

That will be one of McCullum’s biggest challenges in the coming months but he will be helped by the presence of Stokes in that Test dressing-room.

“You know what Stokesy is like – uber-confident, a great man-manager, a guy who can get the very best out guys,” McCullum added.

And at the end of a white-ball winter where the New Zealander has lost 10 of his first 11 games in charge and taken a reputational hit in the process, we are all left wondering was it Stokes all along who was the real architect of the Bazball revolution?