After an atrocious ICC World Cup in 2015, England have completely turned their fortunes around and are now strong favourites for 2019’s tournament…
In 2015, England were ousted by Bangladesh in the quarter-finals of the ICC World Cup after a shocking performance. A massive change in strategy and personnel was necessary if England wanted to compete for major trophies in the near future. Since then, the ODI side has changed almost completely – and the team is playing an aggressive and flamboyant brand of cricket not normally associated with them. The ECB understood that they had to think outside the box and decided to build a team around an explosive set of players who play high-risk but super effective cricket.
Eoin Morgan was appointed captain in place of Alastair Cook – and despite being a calm personality himself, he’s groomed his boys to fight fire with fire. This tilt has proven efficacious in the 50-over format. Their openers, Jason Roy and Alex Hales, attack from the outset while Joe Root and Morgan are there to stabilize the ship. Towards the end, they have the best finishers in the word in Ben Stokes and Jos Butler as the duo can smash the ball all over the park.
It's been a good year for England's batsmen in ODIs. 👏
Chart-topper Jonny Bairstow passed 1000 runs in ODIs in 2018 with his 26 today against Sri Lanka. pic.twitter.com/M3546k4vLg
— ICC (@ICC) October 13, 2018
The batting line-up is fearless and the side is capable of chasing down totals above 350 with the quality and mentality they possess. On the other hand, the pace options are solid with Chris Woakes leading the pack of young fast bowlers. Finally, they have two quality spinners in Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, who pick up wickets and keep the runs tight in the middle overs.
An unlikely turnaround
Who would have thought after the 2015 debacle that England would start as favourites for the 2019 ICC World Cup? Not only is the tournament taking place on home turf for them, but they now have a unit that can deliver on a consistent basis and make life difficult for their opponents. Their current squad is arguably the strongest around on paper – with a strong bench complementing the team’s core. Yes, on a bad day they can lose an important game – but with the new format it looks likely that England will reach the semi-finals. Beyond that, as we know, anything can happen.
England 'scary' right now as they canter to a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the third ODI #SLvENG #SocialStory pic.twitter.com/G6Mqu3WHzw
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 18, 2018
England sides in the past would proceed with caution and make sure they’re extremely careful when setting or defending a target. However, this group will come at you from the first ball with both bat and ball. Ben Stokes will be the key as he provides firepower in the middle order and can give you 10 wicket-taking overs every game. There are also two high quality wicket-keeping options in Butler and Bairstow, with one of them playing as a pure batsman given the threat they pose.
Over the last few years, England have beaten every side in the world on a variety of pitches, and even though they’ve lost matches and series along the way, their journey has been an incredible one. On current form, they are without a doubt the team to watch in the ICC World Cup. The players needs to make sure they’re mentally tough when the matches go down to the wire – and if they can hold their nerve in those situations, it’ll be difficult to stop them from getting their hands on the much-coveted trophy.