England in India: Statistics Brendon McCullum must change as England white-ball coach

England has suffered another defeat. Despite Brendon McCullum marking his first international ODI since taking over as coach on Thursday, England still fell to India in the match at Nagpur.

Since winning the World Cup in 2019 under Eoin Morgan, England has been going through a difficult period, losing 30 ODIs and winning 29. This has become a common occurrence for the English side.

Of course, it is still early days for McCullum, and England has rarely fielded their best XI during this time. In order to revive England's prowess before the Champions Trophy at the end of the month, the New Zealand coach must change the following five frustrating statistics:

Firstly, England needs to improve their starts. In the match against India in Nagpur, England lost three wickets in the powerplay, continuing their struggles in the opening overs. Once, Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy provided them with lightning starts, but since 2022, England has lost 88 wickets in the first 10 overs of 44 matches. This means they are losing an average of two wickets per match in the first 10 overs, the most of any full member nation during this period.

Secondly, captain Jos Buttler needs to be better protected. The struggles at the top of the order have affected their best ODI batsman, captain Jos Buttler. Before 2022, the England captain only had to come in to bat before the 15th over 10 times in 112 innings when batting at No. 5 or lower. But since then, he has had to do so 13 times in 29 ODIs.

Thirdly, England has struggled to control or even dominate ODIs with the bat since Morgan's peak. During their period from being knocked out of the 2015 World Cup to winning at Lord's four years later, England batsmen hit 55 centuries in 99 ODIs. But in the 63 matches since then, they have only hit 23 centuries. They have fallen from an average of 0.56 centuries per match to 0.37 centuries per match. The number of their century partnerships has also declined. Since the 2019 World Cup, England has had 31 hundred partnerships. In the four years before lifting the trophy, they had 69.

Fourthly, England needs to stop being bowled out. It doesn't take an expert to point out that being bowled out in ODIs is not ideal. In Thursday's match, England was bowled out for the 21st time in 44 ODIs since the start of 2022. Between 2016 and 2021, they were bowled out 20 times in 98 innings.

Finally, England's problems are not just with the bat. Failing to take wickets between the 11th and 40th overs, which used to be Liam Plunkett's specialty, has hurt them recently. Since the start of 2024, England's bowlers have averaged one wicket every 42.4 runs in the "middle overs." Among full member nations, only West Indies, Bangladesh, and Ireland have worse records. In terms of economy rate for this metric, England is the worst.