A 3-0 whitewash to New Zealand has extended England's struggle in the ODI format, with qualification for the 2027 World Cup still on a tricky path. Ben Gardner – through five stats – explains what makes them a poor ODI side, and why acceptance will be the key to change.
Stat #1: England have batted first 10 times in ODIs in 2025. On seven of those occasions they have been bowled out. On the other three they have made 351-8, 400-8 and 414-5.
This is a team that is going to get a massive score or die trying, but mostly it’s the latter. No thought given to settling for a bit smaller based on the conditions or opposition, and their frequent collapses are met with one response: we didn’t go hard enough. "The question is, could we have gone a little bit harder with the bat to put them under more pressure? I probably think so," was Harry Brook’s analysis after England’s defeat in the first ODI in New Zealand. After defeat in the first ODI against South Africa, he struck an identical note: "In my opinion, we probably could have gone a little bit harder with the bat and tried to put them under a little bit more pressure." For now, as far as England are concerned, their boom-or-bust nature is a feature, not a bug.
3-0
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) November 1, 2025
New Zealand's chase wasn't all smooth, but they won the third ODI to complete a clean sweep.#NZvENG pic.twitter.com/bNpHMNiqkK
Stat #2: England’s top four contributed 84 runs between them this series, the lowest by any side in an ODI series of three or more matches. They lost 11 wickets inside the 10-over powerplay, and in every game lost another wicket inside the first two overs after the powerplay.
In mitigation for England, the new ball has been fiendishly tough to deal with this series, and New Zealand’s bowlers have wielded it exceptionally. They have found movement in the air and off the pitch, and Zakary Foulkes’ inswing has helped them test both edges of the bat. There are some dismissals that batters will reflect on and say they could do little about. Others, however, were down to overt aggression, to a risk-reward calculation that went the wrong way.
Also read: Mark Butcher: England need more humility to improve in ODIs
England only need to look to New Zealand to see how another way is possible. Jofra Archer bowled just as well as any of New Zealand’s bowlers in the last two ODIs. But, for the most part, the Blackcaps looked to play him out rather than hit him out. Archer bowled 51 dot balls in the second ODI and claimed three wickets. Had England faced Archer, they may well have conceded fewer dots, but also might have lost four or five wickets.
Conditions got easier for batting, as evidenced by Jamie Overton’s trio of 40-plus scores, crescendoing to a maiden ODI fifty. Seeing out a testing passage of bowling and then cashing in later is the basic tenet of ODI batsmanship. England, at the moment, are not paying it any heed.
Stat #3: Joe Root has scored fifty or more on seven occasions in 2025. Every time, England have crossed 300. Their highest total without a Root fifty-plus score is 246.
England have one tempo, and it’s 300bpm breakcore. While Brook and McCullum’s regular exhortations to 'go harder' suggest that is in part deliberate, this is also a group of batters uniquely unversed in the rhythms of ODI batting, knowing how to construct an innings, how to take three singles off a spinner in the middle overs, how to score at a strike-rate of 60 for some passages and 120 for others. The one man who does is Root, and England only make sense with him contributing. He has had one of his best years in ODI cricket, averaging 58 and contributing two of his finest centuries in lone-effort chases. As has often been the case in English cricket over the last decade, you shudder to think how much worse things would be without Root.
Stat #4: Jamie Smith’s strike rate as ODI opener is 132.76. No one has batted more often in the top two positions and scored more quickly. But there are 249 openers who average more than his 26.11.
In Test cricket, the version of Smith England fans were sold on and that they have seen is the complete player, that rare talent with the technique to see off a testing passage, the skill to attack successfully, and the temperament to recognise what approach each situation demands, and when to push forward and row back over the course of an innings. In ODI cricket, he has played one way, and one way only. The coach is relevant here, not least because Smith, with just 15 non-ODI List A appearances to his name, is learning on the job and needs all the guidance he can get. Brendon McCullum was an ultra-aggressive opener who led New Zealand to their first World Cup final. He was also, over his career, a mediocre player, especially compared to his good Test stats and exceptional T20I numbers. But the use of Phil Salt before Smith, and the short-run experiment with pushing Root down to No.4 to accompany both in the top three, suggests that he views one all-out attacking top-order player to be a non-negotiable. They have identified Smith as that player. Right now, he’s much more miss than hit. The fear is, he will be burnt through without having ever given himself a chance to find out what sort of ODI player he could be.
Stat #5: England’s ODI win/loss ratio of 0.36 in 2025 is their worst in a calendar year since 2006, and their fifth worst of all time. They are eighth in the ICC ODI team rankings – only the top nine secure automatic World Cup qualification.
England’s abject 2023 World Cup campaign saw them almost sleepwalk into missing out on qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy. Now they face similar peril. They might feel they are too good to go down. "We’ve got five, six, maybe seven batters who would get into almost every team in the world," Brook said after the series-sealing defeat in the second ODI. "I don't think it's arrogant to say you look at the quality that's within our squad, and we're not an eighth-in-the-world team," Root said before the series started. But the facts are undeniable. Right now, England are not a good ODI team. Perhaps they need to start playing like it, instead of as temporarily displaced world-beaters. Stick in games, respect good bowling, re-learn how the format works. Or else keep losing series after series as they scratch their heads.
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
