ODI World Cup 2023: Nasser Hussain expresses disappointment, feels England relying too much on data, stats

By Team Newsable | First Published Oct 22, 2023, 7:33 PM IST

Commentator Nasser Hussain has questioned England's approach of overly relying on data and stats so far in the ODI World Cup 2023. England has lost three matches out of the four matches played so far.

Former England captain Nasser Hussain has expressed his disappointment over England's performance in the ODI World Cup 2023 so far. The Jos Buttler-led side has been decimated thrice in four games so far with only one win in the bank.

Nothing seems to be clicking for them at the moment as they suffered losses against Afghanistan and South Africa recently. Their loss against Afghanistan was tough to digest as it was the first time that England lost against Afghanistan in ODI's.

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Moreover, the next ODI World Cup 2023 game against South Africa went on to become an even more detrimental game as England lost by 229 runs which is their biggest loss in the history of the ODI format. Incidentally, Jos Buttler made three changes but it didn't work well for them.

Nasser Hussain was not happy with England's leadership as he felt that they relied too much on data and stats. England captain Jos Buttler's decision at the toss against South Africa was an example of it. Despite heat conditions in the middle, Jos Buttler went with bowling first.

While chasing 400 runs, the England batsmen looked tired and exhausted which resulted in their bundling out in 170 runs. The England management has fallen more towards data rather than gut feeling which has resulted in a poor outing so far.

Nasser Hussain said, "I go to stats, I hear stats a lot. [Eoin] Morgan used stats. But there was also a lot of gut feeling there as well. Today, the stats would have probably said the seamers bowl better than your spinners here.

I’m trying to explain things to you at home. Why would they leave out Livingstone and Moeen Ali at seven? Because the stats tell them that the seamer does better than the spinner here. So if they play another spinner in Livingstone or Ali, then they’re leaving a seamer out. So they play the extra seamer down there, but that leaves them vulnerable at No.7"

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