England’s persistence with underperforming players has stalled progress. Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope remain inconsistent, while others have regressed. The forced transition away from James Anderson and Stuart Broad has left the bowling attack unstable, with injury-prone options like Mark Wood and Jofra Archer unreliable.
Younger bowlers such as Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, and Matthew Potts are still raw and cannot lead attacks alone. Promising talents like Harry Brook, Shoaib Bashir, Rehan Ahmed, and Jordan Cox have not been properly nurtured, reflecting a stubborn coaching regime that resists change until too late.