The prize assets of the Caribbean shone when the sunshine refused to, as Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo produced the fireworks, before Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan calmly nudged the ball around to send England packing.

Duckworth-Lewis may have been unkind to England – The Guardian reported today that the system will be reviewed in the coming months to fairly take into account Twenty20 matches – but fans will be highlighting England’s selection and their inability to capitalise during the closing stages of their batting innings, as major reasons for their World Twenty20 expulsion.

England rely heavily on Kevin Pietersen in all forms of the game, and Twenty20 is no exception. England’s batsmen always show early intent, but when KP departs, the innings often grounds to a halt. England’s South African-born number three seems one of the only batsmen whose game is unshackled by the game’s more established tradition.

Addressing England’s early form in the recent one-day series during the tour to the West Indies, Simon Hughes noted in The Telegraph: “the delicate, sometimes flamboyant, skills required to win one-day matches seem beyond traditional English play… The English game is still too regimented. There is a latent caution and orthodoxy in both selection and output which constrains the end product.”

England’s South African-born number three seems one of the only batsmen whose game is unshackled by the game’s more established tradition

Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood, who batted predominantly at four and five, achieved miserable tournament strike-rates of 108.16 and 114.54 respectively. At the time of writing, other middle-order batsman, AB De Villiers, Yuvraj Singh and Bravo, have all scored in excess of 148 runs per 100 balls. Although, with James Foster next out of the dugout, plus five specialist bowlers, perhaps it was no surprise that they were a little hesitant to open up.

The lack of a quality, ‘genuine’ all-rounder in the absence of Andrew Flintoff has also been a predicament, with Dimitri Mascarenhas suffering ill health with the bat and England surprisingly hesitant to gamble with Graham Napier, who was not even given an airing during the warm-up matches.

Furthermore, with five specialist bowlers named and Collingwood another viable option, Luke Wright was always unlikely to bowl against the West Indies, begging the question: is the Sussex hitter really worth his place as a specialist batsman ahead of Robert Key and Eoin Morgan? Key was many people’s favourite to captain the side, while Morgan could have brought the cheeky unorthodoxy that was clearly missing from England’s side.

Eoin Morgan could have brought the cheeky unorthodoxy that was clearly missing from England’s side

Now to that much deliberated position on English soils: the wicketkeeper. The excluded Matthew Prior would have no doubt added firepower to the middle-order and he could have been the missing link. Foster’s batting was at times hapless, but his glovework was exceptional – stumping Yuvraj Singh off a flighted Graeme Swann delivery was perhaps the defining moment of the victory over India. If England opt for two spinners like they did in three of their World Twenty20 games, then Foster’s your man, as his ability to stand up to the stumps is second to none. But the possibility of playing Prior as a specialist batsman should not be ruled out in future.

Nevertheless, Twenty20 appears to be yet another game invented by the English; mastered by others. But we mustn’t be too downbeat. England’s very own World Twenty20 threatened to be an embarrassment after the loss to the Netherlands, a defeat that once again could be accredited to a lack of firepower in the middle order, but England’s tremendous victory over India will be remembered as the highlight of their campaign and they will bow out of the tournament with their heads held high, believing that the weather was what ultimately defeated them.

Other positives that can be taken are that Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad both seem within touching distance of the finished article, while Adil Rashid, who was finally given some international action, showed control with his exciting leg-spin. Oh, and we did better than the Aussies – not a bad consolation at the start of an Ashes summer.