hone in

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,
‘Former England captain Willis honed in Adil Rashid and Jonny Bairstow in the wake of England’s 2-0 series defeat to Pakistan, calling Rashid “useless” and describing Bairstow as a “rabbit in the headlights”.’

–The definitions of ‘hone in’ I found, are close to either ‘home in’ or ‘zero in’. But the original sounds like he lashed out at them.
What do you say?.

2

Possible.

3

I think that there is a word missing.

I would say
honed in on…

Eugene the definitions you’ve found are correct, but the sentence is possible if you consider it in terms of willis zeroing in on Rashid and Bairstow (to blame) rather than anyone else on the team. He homed in on those to as performing below par.