England’s opening game in the Cricket World Cup started well enough. Jonny Bairstow hit his second ball for six. They took 12 off the first over. The holders were here to play hardball. This was the bulldog spirit that Eoin Morgan had prescribed and handed to his successor, Jos Buttler.

Except that England were a neutered puppy for most of the day. Dawid Malan, who ousted the free-spirited and swinging Jason Roy for the opening role, scored nothing at all from the second over. No damage was done, but the 36-year-old wasn’t moving his feet. He wafted and mainly missed until he nicked one. The sum total was 14 off 24 balls, and there was no sign of that imperious form in the warm-up games. Malan was vacant. There was no ID to his game. This was not an England powerplay of blitzkrieg batting; it was more of a sleeping giant with no wake up call.

This nine-wicket defeat by New Zealand was the equivalent of Manchester United’s 7-0 hammering by Liverpool. It was an even contest on paper until England’s game plan on the pitch crumpled. It was a paper plane against a hurricane. There weren't too many mitigating factors as New Zealand were short on bowlers too. It only took two of their batsmen to knock off the runs.

There was a brief and sparkling cameo from Harry Brook., England's young gun, who went 4, 4, 6, and out off the bowling of man of the match Rachin Ravindra. It was like a schoolboy trying to hit maximums before the playground bell goes. “There are still 33 overs left, Harry,” might have been a thought after this waste. Brook hasn’t found his spirit level in ODIs yet, but he will.

Skipper Buttler made batting look as easy as lounging by the pool until he nibbled at one. Something was missing—a boring mechanical piece, a turbo boost, or a coherent Sat Nav that could plot a decent score. England didn’t know where anything was. To be fair, they are travelling a fair bit during the group stage and must have lost something on the way.

In the batting phase, England simply gifted wickets to their opponents. Moeen Ali’s cameos at the crease are getting shorter than a film trailer. Buttler and Root played it right, but the Yorkshireman was inexplicably bowled by Glenn Phillips, a part-timer who had only ever taken six wickets in the format. The much-vaunted lower order didn’t get off the launchpad. Liam Livingstone holed out without any conviction. It was tame stuff.

The bowling was a curate’s egg that turned into a bad omelette. Sam Curran began with two maiden overs and a lucky wicket. All the Surrey man needed was support from the other end. Chris Woakes—superb at home, a bit of a liability away—couldn't provide it. His line was desperate, like searching for the light switch in a darkened room. Mark Wood came on to deliver pace but got smashed instead by the superb Rachin and Devon Conway.

England were smoked. It is not the loss that hurts so much, but the nature of it and the very negative impact it might have on the net run rate. “You sit back and you analyse the innings that've just been and gone, and you’d say that England didn’t throw many punches. That’s always a good indicator as to whether they went hard enough or not because every World Cup has something different, and you want to be the point of difference,” said 2019 skipper Morgan on Sky Sports during the interval between innings.

Buttler had already reminded his troops of the need to “go harder” after posting a similar total in Cardiff last month, when the top and middle order stumbled against the same opponents. In the very next game, they did exactly that thanks to Ben Stokes. The sight of Stokes hobbling on the field at the end of the game wasn’t a particularly good sign for the crucial clash with Bangladesh on Tuesday.

The Three Lions went through all the blue ticks (or red crosses) of a team that simply had no answers on the day. The terrible LBW review from Moeen Ali smacked of desperation. Woakes’s radar was still in Birmingham. Adil Rashid brought none of his control to the proceedings. The go-to bowler or batsman was missing, apart from Joe Root. Even he looked sheepish - and shellshocked - after the game.

England are no longer the lightning team they were in their ODI prime. The next couple of games will show whether they can still play some of their greatest hits.