The end of an era. That’s a dignified summation of how England’s 2023 ODI World Cup campaign unravelled in India that pushed them dangerously close to not even qualifying for the 2025 Champions Trophy. A campaign that began with a shellacking from New Zealand saw a brief recovery before going into a freefall and he expected elimination from the title race which has rightly been termed as the ‘worst title defense’ in ODI World Cup history. Ben Stokes’ assessment wasn’t far from truth either. ‘We’ve played crap,’ Stokes replied to a query when asked where has England gone wrong.
Allrounder Stokes himself battled a knee issue which didn’t allow him to bowl. His returns with the bat showed how much England needed him.
The post-mortem of their failure has started, a team for the Caribbean tour has been announced with several names who were part of the World Cup gone missing. Rebuilding phase has well and truly begun.
World Cup 2023: Played: 9; Won: 3; Lost: 6; Standing: 7th
High point of the Tournament
Beating Pakistan. Why? Simply because what happened before in the tournament and how finally, England were able to fire across departments something which was expected from them from day 1 of the tourney. Their top and middle-order contributed towards a challenging 337/9 in Kolkata. And it was followed by a combined display from the bowlers limiting Pakistan to 244-all out. Came too late but at least they left the Indian shores on a high.
Low point of the Tournament
Losing to Afghanistan. Why? Simply because they couldn’t chase 285 despite boasting of perhaps the deepest batting order of the tournament. In fact, all eleven could bat as No. 11 Reece Topely would show hitting three fours in an unbeaten 7-ball 15 as England were bowled out for 215. Harry Brook’s 66 was the only saving grace for their batters with as many as 9 batters failing to cross 20.
This was their third match of the competition and perhaps the moment their campaign went off the rails.
Captaincy verdict
Just over a year ago, Jos Buttler won England the T20 World Cup as captain. So how can a team that was being hailed as the best limited-overs team of the current era fail so spectacularly under the same leader? England failed to read the conditions properly. They lost to New Zealand while defending 282 and perhaps thought this would be the trend throughout. Why else would Buttler win toss and opt to field in the punishing heat of Mumbai at Wankhede?
England head coach Matthew Mott did admit they read too much into the conditions. Then there was the issue with selection – from an eleven brimming with allrounders to benching them to bringing them back, England never found a settled unit. By the time they had played their fourth match, England used all their 15 players in the squad.
Then there were few questionable tactics – not having complete faith in specialist bowlers, field placements. It didn’t help that at times Buttler was left frustrated with his bowlers not sticking to the plan.
Most valuable player
Dawid Malan. The opening batter finished as their leading run-getter with a century and two half-centuries. He was their only batter to cross the 400-run mark in the tournament. While Jonny Bairstow struggled, Malan’s presence was a little reassuring at the top.
Major disappointment
Jos Buttler is counted among the most destructive white-ball batters of his era. A strike-rate of 117.30 after 178 ODIs is proof enough. However, his journey in India was forgettable. Buttler himself admitted how his own poor show impacted the team’s performance. He mustered 138 runs from nine innings at 15.33 and failed to score a half-century.
Tournament verdict
Ill-prepared. The defending champions didn’t look they had done their homework and often found bereft of ideas under pressure.
Statistics
Most runs: Dawid Malan – 404 runs
Most wickets: Adil Rashid – 15 wickets
Highest individual score: Dawid Malan – 140 vs Bangladesh
Best Bowling Figures: Reece Topley – 4/43 vs Bangladesh
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