Is ODI a dying format? Barmy Army: Not really…
And yet, they came. Not because England’s ODI form demanded attention. Not because the 50-over game, in its current English version, inspires much confidence. They came because following England cricket is rarely about convenience. For many supporters, it is habit. Loyalty. Something inherited rather than chosen.
Jake Palmer is 32, from London, and speaks like someone who has spent long nights arguing cricket and learned that certainty is a dangerous thing. Asked about England’s ODI identity, he pauses before answering.
“We’re trying to find it.”
In Jake’s view, England are caught between formats and priorities. Test cricket still carries history and status. T20 cricket brings money and energy. One day cricket, once England’s great obsession and later their greatest triumph in 2019, now sits awkwardly in between.
“It falls into a funny middle ground,” he says.
“It doesn’t really get the attention it probably should.”
This tour of Sri Lanka, he feels, is more than another bilateral series squeezed into a crowded calendar. “It’s quite an important series in terms of understanding where the national team is at,” he says. Especially away from home, in conditions that demand patience, spin play and adaptability, none of which England practise regularly back home.
The Ashes, inevitably, hangs over the conversation. Jake describes it as “frustrating” and “disappointing”, a series where England “didn’t really turn up as well as they could have” and made mistakes at key moments. He admits he was disheartened that leadership did not change afterward. Still, loyalty remains untouched.
“That doesn’t change the fact that I follow the team closely,” he says. “I’d like to think things will improve.”
Even when he speaks of Bazball, it is with caution rather than blind faith. He likes the positivity behind it and hopes it builds confidence. But confidence alone, he feels, is not enough. What England need now is “better decision making from the leadership”. He hopes this tour can be a starting point.
A few rows away sits Ian, 61, a retired software developer. He watches quietly before offering a more direct assessment.
“One day cricket nowadays is always a bit strange,” he says.
For Ian, the problem is structural. England’s ODI side is a mixture of T20 specialists and Test regulars, with very few players who actually play 50-over cricket consistently.
“There aren’t many people who play ODIs very often,” he points out.
He follows county games closely, watching Surrey and Middlesex and attending several Tests every summer. That grounding shapes his concern. The decline of domestic one day cricket in England, he believes, has had consequences.
“To fit The Hundred in, something had to give,” explains Ian, who is on his second visit to the island.
Ian, on his second tour
His first though, to watch Test cricket between Sri Lanka and England, could not materialise as the series was postponed due to Covid-19.
“The one day competition is now played by players who can’t get a Hundred contract. Anyone likely to play for England isn’t playing domestic one day cricket at all.”
Still, even Ian finds reasons to be mildly encouraged on this tour. England’s victory in Sri Lanka impressed him not because it was perfect, but because it showed adaptability.
“I didn’t think Will Jacks would bowl 10 overs,” he says.
“And I didn’t think I’d ever see Joe Root bowl the 50th over in an ODI. But here we are.”
Root, in particular, intrigues him. With two half centuries and a century in the series and a willingness, however reluctant, to bowl, Ian sees an underused option.
“He’s a better bowler than he thinks he is,” he says.
“In places like Sri Lanka or India, maybe England should use him more as an all-rounder.”
Jake Palmer
On leadership, Ian is less convinced. Harry Brook’s captaincy has not dramatically changed his outlook. His frustrations, he admits, largely come from Test cricket selections he “never really understood”.
“I’m not a fan of Zak Crawley,” he says plainly, before adding with a smile, “but hopefully he (Brook) will play today and score a hundred.”
In fact Brook played a brilliant and unbeaten 136 off 66 balls as England won by 53 runs to win the series 2-1.
Bazball, in his view, needs context. “You have to adapt,” he says.
“Sometimes it feels like they don’t want to.”
Playing as if every pitch is flat and every opponent cooperative, especially away from home, is a dangerous assumption.
The Ashes defeat, for him, was painful but not shocking. “We knew it would be difficult,” he says.
“But we didn’t think they’d lose the first three Tests so quickly.”
What hurt most was not the loss itself, but what he saw as a failure to adjust. So what matters more now. Winning this ODI series or seeing smarter cricket. Ian thinks carefully before answering.
“Smarter and more adaptable cricket would mean a lot,” he says.
Then reality steps in. “But we do need ranking points to qualify for the next World Cup, so it would be nice to get those too.”
Around them, the ground hums with contrast. English accents mix with Sinhala chants and the papare. These supporters will travel on to Kandy, following a team that adapted well to the conditions, hoping that English team can complete a successful series that would put them in a strong position to lift the T20 World Cup.