Cricket: England rarely tested in West Indies but Champions Trophy plans crystallise

England depart the Caribbean with a largely unruffled 3-0 win over West Indies tucked in the back pocket and while, like the Roman soldiers in Monty Python’s Life of Brian proudly holding up a spoon, they may have unearthed few discoveries, the tour has returned the side to winning ways after India and means plans for June’s Champions Trophy have crystallised a touch more.

Ripping up the blueprint before a global tournament has been an English tradition in the past (only once, in the 2010 World Twenty20, did that not end in tears) but the captain, Eoin Morgan, and the coaching team are dead set on their current plan. It is why, rather than use this series against callow opposition to experiment, they opted to get runs and wickets into the first choice XI even when victory was secured.

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It was this clarity that meant Alex Hales returned at the first opportunity after he was fit from a broken hand. While some may have conflated his failed crack at Test cricket with the decision to miss the Bangladesh tour as reason why Sam Billings deserved an extra game to stake his claim, Morgan and the acting head coach Paul Farbrace backed one of the key elements in the side’s post-World Cup rebirth.

The century that followed in the crushing win in Barbados – a textbook example of his ability to play catch-up – may have repaid this decision immediately and emboldened the player himself after a personally maddening winter. Had Hales’s innings ended in a failure though, little would have changed in England minds; the opener, now with five hundreds since the last World Cup, is their man to partner Jason Roy.

Joe Root, newly-installed as Test captain and still getting to grips with nappy-changing duties at home, could easily have been a candidate to miss the tour. But after a tough first innings, he finished top-scorer with 90 not out and 101, and now has the best part of a month before the start of the summer to recharge the batteries. The series against Ireland in early May, where a bit of tinkering will indeed take place due to Indian Premier League absentees, is an option if he decides he needs longer.

With Morgan himself in the runs after a century in the opener, Roy cracking a quick-fire fifty in the second and some cameos from Ben Stokes, the main batting concern, and where the policy of backing of first-teamers may yet be tested, is the form of Jos Buttler during the latter half of the winter.

For the owner of England’s three fastest one-day hundreds, an average of 12 and a highest score of 31 since the start of the year is concerning. It has taken little for the Yorkshire accents among the travelling support to start chuntering about Jonny Bairstow.

Unlike their predecessors the management (including the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, watching on from Australia) will be loath to make such a fundamental switch with less than three months before the Champions Trophy and will now be hoping that some cobweb-blowing time in the IPL sees the 26-year-old return for the South Africa series that precedes the international tournament with confidence restored.

Bowling-wise, England made light work of West Indies. Chris Woakes, man of the series both for his seven wickets and the gimlet-eyed unbeaten 68 that won the second match, has continued his upward trajectory while his new ball partner Steven Finn, making his comeback after a year of frustration, flickered at times such that Morgan described it as a chance taken to nudge ahead of Jake Ball in the pecking order, although the left-arm variety of the injured David Willey may still be the first-choice option here.

Belting pitches – kryptonite to England – were not in play here and the opposition was weak but the management will still be encouraged by Liam Plunkett’s 10 wickets at nine runs apiece, including a career-best four for 40 in the opener in Antigua, as they search for a genuine threat in the middle overs. The 90mph-plus of Mark Wood still feels their desired trump card in this respect but not one, given his injury record, that can be banked upon.

For West Indies, any optimism about their future off the field under new administration is tempered by the state of the affairs on it at present.

They are shorn of experience, devoid of match-winners and are led in both Test and one-day cricket by a man in Jason Holder who, at 25, is shouldering an immense burden while still trying to establish his own identity as a cricketer.

Their head coach, Stuart Law, spoke of trying to emulate the transformation undergone by their opponents since the last World Cup but the starting point feels far lower. There is talent – Alzarri Joseph, who picked up four wickets in the third match, and their leading scorer, Jonathan Carter, being two examples – but there are no seniors to look up to.

The upcoming series at home to Pakistan could define their hopes of automatic qualification for the 2019 World Cup – they need to break the top eight by the end of September – with the matches that follow against Afghanistan a hiding to nothing given the few points victory would grant them in the rankings compared to the damaging effect defeat would have. On current form, with just four wins from their last 20 matches, the former is not a given either.