Cricket’s land of origin, England has seen several glorious years of cricket in the past. However, since the establishment of the World Cup tournament in 1975, the team has faced hard luck in lifting the trophy. On the contrary, this year the speculations seem pretty promising for the team.
According to various cricket experts, England will surely be a tough nut to crack this season. These verdicts come out as a result of the team exhibiting stupendous performances in the ODI Series lately. During the time span of 2018 and 2019, the team has won 5 ODI Series out of the 6 played. Therefore, considering them a universal foe is a legitimate fear of the contending teams.
The entire squad has showcased talent in the recent past and has acted as pillars of strength for the team, while the batting line up played a pivotal role in the overall performance. The pace attack including Mark Wood, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett and Tom Curran along with the spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, on the other hand, have done their jobs tremendously well!
If you’ve been following the IPL, you probably know about the impact players like Jos Buttler, Johnny Bairstow, Ben Stokes are making in the competition. With the likes of Jason Roy, Joe Root England have an invincible batting line up that can crack up the sharpest of bowling attacks worldwide.
It is England about whom the entire world is talking … and about whom everyone is doubtless preparing to burst out laughing if they fail to fulfil their destiny this summer. But, tellingly, no matter how wishful the thinking may be on that front, there is no escaping the notes of respect and trepidation that underpin every mention of the world No. 1s.
England’s four-year journey from no-hopers to world-beaters has been stunning and well-documented – as many as five players still survive from the team that crashed out in the group stages against Bangladesh four years ago, but it is the transformation in mindset that has been stunning and unequivocal.
The brutality of England’s defeat in the World T20 final in 2016 was followed a year later by the totality of their collapse against Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy. Both matches, however, came earlier than expected in England’s journey into the light. Morgan himself had always envisaged a four-year plan when it came to scraping his team off the turf after that dreadful defeat in Adelaide.
Now? England go into the tournament as the favorites. They have, with the bat in particular, pushed the boundaries of what any of us thought was possible and they have a settled, confident team. They don’t need meetings to find a formula; they just need to deliver.
England are settled, confident and as ready as they could reasonably hope to be. It is hard to imagine any England team has gone into a World Cup in better shape. And so here we are, at the start of a potential 11 matches on the road to overdue glory. So near, so far. So often. So what’s it to be this time? Will England stay a World Cup Virgin?
