'Once in 8 Attempts..': Sehwag, Jaffer Brutally Troll Vaughan on Bold 'England in WC Semis' Claim

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has been trolled by the likes of Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer after the former made a bold claim about England’s place in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 semifinals. Vaughan put out a social media post hours after their embarrassing 69-run defeat to Afghanistan, and Sehwag reminded the Englishman that England have struggled to qualify for the semifinals of the World Cup on multiple occasions.

Jos Buttler and Co. suffered another massive upset on Sunday, in Delhi as they suffered their first-ever defeat to Afghanistan. England have slipped to fifth place in the ODI World Cup 2023 points table.

The defending champions have now lost two games from three outings, they were beaten by New Zealand in the opening fixture of the 2023 World Cup, after which they beat Bangladesh by 137 runs but Afghanistan have the 2019 champions yet another rude wake-up call.

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Despite the defeat, Vaughan remains upbeat that England will make it into the top four and qualify for the semifinals, but Sehwag has pointed out otherwise.

Vaughan took to social media platform X and issued a bold claim as he wrote, “England in the World Cup semis.”

Sehwag took note of the post and trolled England about their past record, wherein they have only qualified for the final four once in 8 attempts.

“Not in 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2023. Just one in 8 attempts,” replied Sehwag to Vaughan.

Furthermore, Sehwag wasn’t the only Indian legend to take a sly dig at Vaughan, his social media buddy Jaffer also took a swipe. The pair are well known for their banter, and after England’s defeat to Afghanistan, Jaffer teased his friend.

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“Hope you’re ok,” read the post from the ex-Indian opener.

England captain Buttler had won the toss at Arun Jaitley Stadium as he elected to bowl. Afghanistan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran stitched together a 114-run stand to trouble the English bowlers.

They did however make a comeback in the game, Gurbaz managed to score 80 runs while Ikram Alikhil scored a fifty to guide Afghanistan to their second-highest total in ODI World Cup history at 284.

England’s chase got underway in a shaky manner and they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Rashid Khan and Mujeeb ur Rahman picked up 3 wickets each as Harry Brook was the lone warrior for his team, the middle-order batter scored 66 runs but England were all out for 215 runs.