For three years, England were a spent force in ODIs. Two years on from a disastrous World Cup campaign in 2023, they were booted out of the Champions Trophy after losing all of their group-stage games. An emotional Jos Buttler stepped down as captain, taking with him the final dregs of the Eoin Morgan era. When Harry Brook took over as captain, defeats to South Africa and a dismal series in New Zealand followed, and there was a line of thinking that saw English cricket as incapable of producing a side that could compete for 50-over trophies again.

With the One Day Cup having been reduced to a development competition, stuffed with teenagers and without Hundred players, the knowledge gap of constructing an ODI innings among England’s new generation of batters was evident.

However, from winter to summer in 2026, England won all three of the bilateral ODI series they played, including overpowering Champions Trophy winners India. Having had doubts cast over whether they might actually qualify for the 2027 World Cup, they will likely go into next year’s competition in a far better place than they went into the last.

Nevertheless, there are still questions over their ability to compete in unfavourable conditions against the best teams in the world. They rely too often, as ever, on Joe Root to make the bulk of the runs when posting big totals, or one of their supremely talented virtuosos in Brook or Jacob Bethell to produce a one-off blitz. Ever-present also is the need to find a seam bowler who can bat in the top six and justify a place there on batting merit, a gap they haven’t been able to properly fill since Ben Stokes’s last ODI three years ago.

Those issues were clear to see in the first match of the tri-series in Rawalpindi. While Arafat Minhas hit a better than a run-a-ball 59 at No.7 before taking six-for, Sam Curran holed out looking for a release, having faced 18 balls without a boundary after being promoted to No.5. Will Jacks, while superb with the ball, was the wicket which all but sealed the game, mishitting a ball from Minhas to short mid-wicket.

With that being said, many of the strides England have made in ODIs over the last 18 months have been genuine.

In the period between the 2023 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy, England were one of only three teams to score their runs quicker than a run a ball. However, they scored fewer runs on average than almost any other full member, at 29.77 per wicket. In contrast, over the last 18 months England have continued to score their runs at better than a run a ball, but now their average runs have picked up dramatically, at 37.73 per wicket.

During their Champions Trophy campaign, Phil Salt in particular drew criticism for his approach as a 50-over opener. In his 33 ODI innings, only once did Salt face more than 30 balls before getting out, falling into his natural role as a T20I opener instead of switching his skillset for the longer format. The same could be said of Jamie Smith, who had only played 15 List A games before making his England debut in 2023, and was catapulted into the Champions Trophy squad as a top-order batter after seven ODI caps.

While Salt hasn’t played an ODI for England since the Champions Trophy, Smith was dropped after a difficult series in New Zealand at the end of last year. Both were, to some extent, rolls of the dice – Salt picked off the back of his T20 prowess, and Smith as a hunch after a brilliant start as a lower-order Test batter. In their places, England have hedged their bets on hunches once again, but this time based on better foundations.

Jacob Bethell’s extreme talent has to some extent transcended his limited experience in the 50-over format, while Tom Banton’s multi-format potential and the experience gained from being in and out of England squads in his early 20s has allowed him to take his opportunity this time around. Harry Brook has also strung together greater 50-over consistency, combined with a growing tactical awareness on the field.

Prioritising all-rounders has also been a key aspect of England’s post-Champions Trophy transformation. During the Champions Trophy England had no all-rounders in their top-six excluding Joe Root, with Liam Livingstone their only way of getting some overs out of their batters. The fallibilities of that balance were shown in their first group game against Australia, where Brydon Carse had a poor outing but was still required to bowl seven overs.

While neither Curran nor Jacks has fully embraced an all-round role, both have given England greater flexibility with the ball. Curran at the death has made the bowling line-up more coherent, while Jacks’ transformation from top-order power-hitter to spin-bowling innings-finisher saw him play several useful innings over the summer.

Questions persist over whether England have made significant leaps to challenge the best teams in the world in challenging conditions, and their collapse in Rawalpindi against Pakistan – who claimed series-wins against Australia and South Africa in the last year – will do nothing to quieten them. Regardless of that, however, their benchmark this winter is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago.

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