It takes one day, but England don't have the time right now

The widespread view that ODIs are dying a slow and painful death has not been rebuffed in the first two-and-a-half weeks of the World Cup in India. Halfway through the group stage, the tournament has been characterised by two things: the number of close finishes (hardly any) and empty seats (plenty).

It was a theme that emerged as Joe Root spoke to the English press in Bengaluru on Monday. Root stressed that he was not looking to make excuses for England's disastrous start to their title defence, which has seen them lose three of their first four matches, but the lingering sense that 50-over cricket no longer takes precedence was reinforced.

Echoing his coach, Matthew Mott, Root suggested that England's build-up had been "rushed" after a six-month gap between March and September in which none of their World Cup squad played a single List A game, let alone an ODI. "It would have been nice to have a proper run-in," he said.

In the four years between the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, England played 88 ODIs and used 34 players, 12 of whom played more than 50% of those games. From 2019-23, they played just 42 ODIs and used 44 players, of whom only eight featured in at least half. The player who won the most caps in this cycle, Jason Roy, is not at the World Cup.

Playing a full-strength side more often "definitely would have benefitted" England, Root said. "It would have been nice to [have] a six-month period where you slowly work things through as a group. But that's just not how it is at the minute, and that's not how we get to play our cricket as an England player, so you've just got to be adaptable."

Since their triumph in the 2019 World Cup, England's schedule has been dominated by Test cricket: they have played 56 Tests in that period, with Australia and India joint-second on 39. With several tours staged concurrently and their white-ball teams focused on the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups, multi-format players have often been rested for ODIs.

The result is that England's all-format players are simultaneously overcooked after a busy winter of touring, a full IPL season and an exhausting Ashes campaign; and undercooked, in terms of relevant practice in the format they are actually playing at this World Cup.

Root is a prime example: he played only 19 ODIs between the 2019 final and the opening game of the 2023 tournament. "We're in a unique situation," he said. "We play a huge amount of Test cricket compared to a lot of the other nations, so there's always going to be overlapping schedules if we continue to play the amount that we do."

England's next generation has also hardly played 50-over cricket, since the counties' One Day Cup clashes with the Hundred, which launched in 2021. Gus Atkinson, the young Surrey fast bowler who featured in their 229-run thrashing to South Africa on Saturday, has played more one-day cricket for his country (four caps) than his county (two).

Mott admitted that England were "guessing a little bit" in selection meetings due to their inability to compare players' recent 50-over performances. "When you're not playing the format, it's hard to know who the best players are," Root said. "That being said, I don't think we've got the wrong squad of players here; I just don't think we've performed."

Root has been an advocate of the Hundred, and said that England's start to the World Cup "doesn't make me change my mind" about it. "It makes me question whether we should be playing more 50-over cricket [at domestic level] instead of T20 - instead of the Blast, maybe," he said.

But the reality is that England are unlikely to prioritise 50-over cricket again anytime soon. And why would they, given the shifts in the sport's landscape? They will pick a fresh squad to play three ODIs against West Indies in December, but will then not play another series in the format until mid-September, when they host Australia.

"There's talk of whether this format is relevant anymore anyway, in international cricket," Root said. "Whether that gets changed, I don't know. Who knows how things will move in the future? But whether it's domestically or internationally, I don't think we play enough of it if we're going to continue to look to compete in World Cups."

Asked whether he would like the format to survive, Root - who was England's top-scorer at the 2019 World Cup - did not provide a ringing endorsement. "I think it's got a huge amount of history and it brings a lot to cricket," he said. "It will always hold a very special part of my heart for what it's given me throughout my career.

"[But] I think that's a question that should be posed to the next generation of players, and to everyone watching the game, really. It shouldn't be down to, 'is it bringing the most money for the sport?' It should be down to what people want to watch, and what's going to engage the next generation of players."

Their answer may become apparent next month, when England select a squad to tour the Caribbean for three ODIs and five T20Is: will players who have been excluded from the list of central contracts that will be published this week turn down franchise deals in order to play in a bilateral tour?

While many of the players involved in this tournament still see it as the centrepiece of the international game, that consensus is weakening. Last year, a survey by the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) found that just 54% of men's players consider the World Cup the "pinnacle ICC event", down from 86% in 2019.

And England's squad has been surprised by how poor the crowds have been for their matches so far - in particular against New Zealand on the opening night in Ahmedabad.

"I know [the stadium holds] 130,000 people but the first game, opening World Cup match, [teams from the] previous final, I expected more people to be there," Root said. "But when it's 50 degrees [sic] and you're sat in the sun all day, and a lot of the time it's working hours, it's understandable."

If IPL games, which last up to four hours, can feel too long, the eight-hour ODI matchday is increasingly out of kilter with fans' demands; the ICC's slogan for this tournament, "It takes one day", seems almost apologetic.

Root emphasised his belief that England's squad remain "bloody good players" who can pull off five consecutive wins to reach the semi-finals, starting against Sri Lanka on Thursday. He also played down the idea that, with their legacy as world champions in both white-ball formats secure, England have lacked the hunger of other teams.

They are clearly not as bad a side as their performances at this World Cup have suggested, but the trend is clear: England were brilliant at one-day cricket during the four years when it became their No. 1 priority, and have declined in the four years since. Considering the global context, it may never be their priority again.