sledger
Spanish_Vicente
For as long as I can remember there have just been far too many players who are just not suited to ODIs taking a prominent role in the side. This is especially the case with captains. Nasser, Vaughan, Strauss and Cook, whilst all having their moments, were/are, with the best will in the world, not especially proficient one day cricketers.Possibly, but they oft change the captain, and there's age to factor in for a lot of them too. Just don't see Bell and Cook being there, which aids things massively.
Plus there just look to be better players around challenging, with Hales, Vince, Taylor and Billings.
Bowling still looks ghastly whatever we do though.
In a similar vein, there have always been bits and pieces players who have been drafted in from time to time because they give the illusion of being an allrounder, or can bowl spin etc... (e.g. McGrath, Blackwell, Tredwell, Dalrymple, Clarke, Batty, Yardy, etc...) and this has just not helped things.
And then to top it off there has been a lot of dross selected in this time frame as well. I suppose actually, looking at this list of players who have played for England ( List of England ODI cricketers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) you could in fact argue that given the number of debuts that have occurred over the last decade or so, the selectors have actually tried to shake things up, but that the majority of the players they have called up have been terrible. It really is a who's who of underwhelming/terrible selections for the most part.