England may be forced to change style, concedes Cook

Injured pace bowlers Stuart Broad and Steven Finn have yet to be officially ruled out of tomorrow’s final match of three against the Kiwis at Trent Bridge.

After Sunday’s 86-run humbling by the Kiwis at the Ageas Bowl, however, England captain Alastair Cook already was unsure whether the two key seamers may yet also have to sit out Saturday’s Champions Trophy opener against Australia at Edgbaston.

With Yorkshire’s Tim Bresnan on alert to dash off at any time to be with his wife Hannah in Halifax for the birth of their first child, and Jade Dernbach and Chris Woakes simply unable to contain New Zealand on Sunday, frowns are everywhere as England’s management team tries to come up with a serviceable attack.

Only James Anderson and Graeme Swann remain fit and reliable components as England contemplate first of all how to avoid a 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand – their only ODI series defeat of any kind on home soil since September 2009.

Cook baulked at the suggestion Broad and Finn’s continued absence might completely undermine England’s ODI effectiveness. “I think that would be doing a disservice to the other 13 guys in the squad,” he said, acknowledging nonetheless he and coach Ashley Giles may now need to ponder a re-deployment of their bowling resources.

“Clearly, you take two premier bowlers out of anyone’s side, and it’s going to hurt the side.

“You might have to change the way you play. We might have just learnt that.”

Cook, whose team fell well short in Southampton of what would have been the second-highest successful ODI run chase in history, added: “You do tend to look, don’t you, after a couple of defeats like this at the balance and make-up of your side.

“Clearly, when you get that right – like we did against Australia (in a 4-0 series victory) last year – we’re a very hard side to beat. We’ve certainly got options to go both ways.

“If we’d won these games, using the five (frontline) bowlers, then we’d be less likely to change. But at this point, I’m sure we’ll be looking at different combinations because the ones we’ve just used haven’t worked in these two games.”

England can expect no respite from New Zealand, who are not interested in the notion of resting players with the Champions Trophy in mind because a 3-0 whitewash in this country would be so highly prized in its own right.

While captain Brendon McCullum waits to hear if veteran spinner Daniel Vettori will be able to make his comeback from a long-term Achilles injury, he has made it clear there will be no tinkering with selection.