England and the physical challenge of the sub-continent
Winning away from home in international cricket has never been so hard. In the last ten years, only Australia, India and South Africa have won more One-Day Internationals than they have lost away from home. It is a trend that is mirrored in the Test arena, too.
Fewer warm-up games, a packed schedule allowing few opportunities to rest or develop technique and, increasingly, pitches curated to the advantage of home sides have all made a difference. For England's cricketers in Bangladesh, they have the added difficulty of extreme heat and humidity to cope with.
It was instructive to see David Willey's pained expression as he walked back to the end of his mark during the fifth over of his opening spell in the second ODI on Sunday (October 9). Mouth wide open, gasping for breath, shirt so drenched in sweat it was stuck to him, the 37 degree heat and 70% humidity was clearly taking its toll. Dhaka is a long way from Yorkshire after all.
The England players have made light of the conditions - they are the same for both sides - but there is no doubt they place the players under stress. The ability to deliver skills, think clearly under pressure and keep up performances for sustained periods are all impacted by the suffocating heat, something England's more temperate climate rarely delivers.
England is one of the best resourced teams in the world so no stone is left unturned in their preparation, physical as well as technical and tactical, and their players are well known to be some of the fittest around. Even then, the conditions they are facing in Bangladesh take them to the very edge.
Phil Scott is England's Strength and Conditioning Coach and he told Cricbuzz from Bangladesh that the conditions can cause the players to lose anything up to five kilograms in weight during a day's play. The coaching staff are doing all they can to help the players combat the heat and humidity.
"Making sure they are hydrated well before the game is crucial," said Scott. "We all know playing catch up is too late in these conditions. Ice towels are a particular favourite of the guys, cold drinks, fans, shade work in training, too. But there's not a lot of getting away from the heat over 50 overs in the field."
Usually, the England players have a good chunk of time to prepare for an overseas tour after the end of the domestic season, but not this time. "With the quick turnaround from the County Championship [the season finished on 23rd September], a lot of the guys had minimal time to train outside of cricket before this tour.
"Previously, when time has allowed, we make use of the facilities at the National Performance Centre in Loughborough which includes sweat testing, to see the rate of which and type of sweater they are. For example, where higher than average salts are lost, and subsequent heat chamber training," added Scott.
Alastair Cook has an extremely low rate of sweat loss which means he loses far less fluid during a day in the field than someone like Willey would. Having this information is important because studies have proven that even a small amount of dehydration can affect concentration levels. For a game built on the ability to concentrate for long periods, that is an issue and so players have individual drinks prepared to replenish the nutrients they lose.
The compressed modern-day tours allow precious little time for acclimatisation and short turnarounds between games - just twenty-four hours between the first and second games of this series - are also a challenge. After Jake Ball's lung-busting performance with the ball, running in hard to take five wickets in the first game of the series, recovery was key to make sure he was ready for the next one.
"Jake's recovery included a big sleep, which is number one priority, followed by soft tissue work from the physio Craig de Weymarn and support from Mark Saxby," said Scott. "These guys work very hard especially on recovery days.
"Jake also did a pool session to get himself moving and to stretch, along with eating well. With another good night's sleep, he was ready for the game on Sunday. The players all have access to compression garments, ice baths, a Gecko which is a device to electrically stimulate blood flow and increase recovery but they all have individual preferences to these."
Scott monitors the training and playing workloads of each player through the Catapult GPS system which tracks distances covered and intensity of effort. This information allows the coaches to plan training and recovery sessions around the effort expended by each player. There will be times to up the intensity of training but also times to reign back too as Ball did between games. There's no point in flogging a knackered horse.
England's pre-Christmas schedule of three ODIs and seven Tests in just two and a half months is sure to test their cricketing mettle. Just as much, it will be a test of their ability to withstand the extreme heat and humidity of the subcontinent and instead focus on the game going on around them.
That may even prove the difference between winning and losing.
Fewer warm-up games, a packed schedule allowing few opportunities to rest or develop technique and, increasingly, pitches curated to the advantage of home sides have all made a difference. For England's cricketers in Bangladesh, they have the added difficulty of extreme heat and humidity to cope with.
It was instructive to see David Willey's pained expression as he walked back to the end of his mark during the fifth over of his opening spell in the second ODI on Sunday (October 9). Mouth wide open, gasping for breath, shirt so drenched in sweat it was stuck to him, the 37 degree heat and 70% humidity was clearly taking its toll. Dhaka is a long way from Yorkshire after all.
The England players have made light of the conditions - they are the same for both sides - but there is no doubt they place the players under stress. The ability to deliver skills, think clearly under pressure and keep up performances for sustained periods are all impacted by the suffocating heat, something England's more temperate climate rarely delivers.
England is one of the best resourced teams in the world so no stone is left unturned in their preparation, physical as well as technical and tactical, and their players are well known to be some of the fittest around. Even then, the conditions they are facing in Bangladesh take them to the very edge.
Phil Scott is England's Strength and Conditioning Coach and he told Cricbuzz from Bangladesh that the conditions can cause the players to lose anything up to five kilograms in weight during a day's play. The coaching staff are doing all they can to help the players combat the heat and humidity.
"Making sure they are hydrated well before the game is crucial," said Scott. "We all know playing catch up is too late in these conditions. Ice towels are a particular favourite of the guys, cold drinks, fans, shade work in training, too. But there's not a lot of getting away from the heat over 50 overs in the field."
Usually, the England players have a good chunk of time to prepare for an overseas tour after the end of the domestic season, but not this time. "With the quick turnaround from the County Championship [the season finished on 23rd September], a lot of the guys had minimal time to train outside of cricket before this tour.
"Previously, when time has allowed, we make use of the facilities at the National Performance Centre in Loughborough which includes sweat testing, to see the rate of which and type of sweater they are. For example, where higher than average salts are lost, and subsequent heat chamber training," added Scott.
Alastair Cook has an extremely low rate of sweat loss which means he loses far less fluid during a day in the field than someone like Willey would. Having this information is important because studies have proven that even a small amount of dehydration can affect concentration levels. For a game built on the ability to concentrate for long periods, that is an issue and so players have individual drinks prepared to replenish the nutrients they lose.
The compressed modern-day tours allow precious little time for acclimatisation and short turnarounds between games - just twenty-four hours between the first and second games of this series - are also a challenge. After Jake Ball's lung-busting performance with the ball, running in hard to take five wickets in the first game of the series, recovery was key to make sure he was ready for the next one.
"Jake's recovery included a big sleep, which is number one priority, followed by soft tissue work from the physio Craig de Weymarn and support from Mark Saxby," said Scott. "These guys work very hard especially on recovery days.
"Jake also did a pool session to get himself moving and to stretch, along with eating well. With another good night's sleep, he was ready for the game on Sunday. The players all have access to compression garments, ice baths, a Gecko which is a device to electrically stimulate blood flow and increase recovery but they all have individual preferences to these."
Scott monitors the training and playing workloads of each player through the Catapult GPS system which tracks distances covered and intensity of effort. This information allows the coaches to plan training and recovery sessions around the effort expended by each player. There will be times to up the intensity of training but also times to reign back too as Ball did between games. There's no point in flogging a knackered horse.
England's pre-Christmas schedule of three ODIs and seven Tests in just two and a half months is sure to test their cricketing mettle. Just as much, it will be a test of their ability to withstand the extreme heat and humidity of the subcontinent and instead focus on the game going on around them.
That may even prove the difference between winning and losing.
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