Hussain, Atherton tear into 'regressed' England as Jos Buttler and co. handed 'lesson' after Champions Trophy exit

England were unceremoniously eliminated from the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, with a narrow 8-run loss to Afghanistan bringing an end to a disappointing campaign. Former England captains turned pundits Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain discussed England's struggles in their post-match analysis for Sky Cricket.

“I think England have definitely regressed, and it's an amazing lesson in sport,” said Atherton, reflecting on the downfall of a team that won the ODI World Cup in 2019 with one of the best teams in the format’s history.

“The moment you take your eye slightly off the ball, it can come back to bite you, and it’s very difficult to drag it back. There’s all kind of reasons for that,” continued Atherton. “There was a time the white ball team had done very well, but the Test match team was in the doldrums, so focus goes back to the Test team, and it’s difficult to do that across formats.”

Going further into the particulars of this team’s struggles, Atherton said: “Suddenly you’re not winning games, you’re losing games, and you find that your team is way off the pace. Hasn’t looked a team that’s in full working order.”

“Look at that Afghanistan bowling attack, left-armers, pace-off, lots of different types of spin. We looked a bit one-dimensional with the ball. And not enough batters are in prime touch. There’s a lot of batters not quite clicking, Salt, Brook more recently. That’s hurting them,” explained Atherton.

Hussain agreed with Atherton’s assessment of the one-dimensional nature of England’s attack, pointing out how the bowling was not as varied as Afghanistan’s was on the day.

'Way off for a long time…'

“Another ICC event they’ve been poor in. Their win percentage since the World Cup was 29%, it’s dropped from there. They can have no complaints tonight or leading into it. They haven’t played good white ball cricket for a very long time,” said Hussain.

Nevertheless, Hussain also indicated that Afghanistan’s strength were also a big factor in their win. “You have to give credit to Afghanistan, the way Zadran played, 177, one of the best innings I’ve seen in white ball cricket,” explained Hussain. “Just not good enough from England, way off, and not just way off today, way off for a long time.”

England now have a match against South Africa to look forward to, which the Proteas will want to win to guarantee progression, while Afghanistan have set a virtual quarterfinal against Australia for qualification.