I like that but I’d rotate Archer and Wood and play Woakes instead.

I agree with most of this, I certainly don’t have England as strong favourites but do expect them to be challenging at the business end of the tournament. Moeen certainly has value in the sub-continent, and I would also point out that whilst he may not have the highest batting average he makes his runs very quickly, of players with 2000+ ODI runs Moeen is 10th in career strike rate (and three of the players above him are teammates).

Not sure however that Dawid Malan has such a great record in the sub-continent however, a quick check of Statsguru shows that in T20Is (the format with the largest sample size for him) he averages 31.57 with a strike rate of 123.46 in 18 matches in Asia against an average of 40.93 at 139.80 from 38 matches outside Asia.

Moeen wouldn’t always be a first team pick in England – indeed he didn’t play much part in the 2019 world cup, playing fewer than half the matches. But in the Indian subcontinent its hard to imagine who England might pick ahead of him for that vital “second/third spinner who can also properly bat” slot.

Similarly Malan wouldn’t necessarily be a shoo-in at home, but has a great track record in the subcontinent.

England will go into that tournament with, arguably, one of the very strongest squads around, but not necessarily will be able to field the strongest head-to-head eleven in every key match.

England has the talent to win a World Cup in India but it feels like a mighty tough ask to actually prevail in the big moments/matches to do so. It’ll be fun watching England try, though.

Batting average of 25 and a bowling average of 50.

Has anyone played over 100 ODIs with a worse record?

Bairstow, Roy, Malan, Root, Brook, Buttler, Moeen, Curran, Rashid, Archer, Wood.