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England have come a very long way from the time they
were never taken seriously at any ICC tournament due to their own mixture of
personal baggage and internal conflicts. However, ever since that famous
debacle of 2015, the board and the players were rudely awakened and ever since
they have transformed into a white-ball juggernaut. From not winning a single
ICC knockout game, they enter this tournament as holders of both the 50-over
and the 20-over World Cups, and will be ever so eager to be the only side in white-ball
cricket history to win 3 consecutive white-ball tournaments.
The only significant training this team received was
when they defeated New Zealand 3-1 last month after coming back from a goal
down. In the previous 13 months, England had only played nine one-day
internationals, and the whole World Cup team rested during their most recent
1-0 victory against Ireland. Since Matthew Mott was hired as the white-ball
coach last year, bilateral outcomes have been viewed as being of low priority;
after all, in 2022, his team peaked at the appropriate time to win the T20
World Cup in Australia.
After a brief ODI retirement, Ben Stokes comes back as
a specialist batter, and Jason Roy was replaced at the last minute by Harry
Brook. Jofra Archer will travel as a reserve. England has chosen six seamers in
anticipation of aches and pains and a variation of playing conditions over
their nine group games in eight different locales.
Despite playing only a handful of ODI games since
being England’s top-scorer in the 2019 World Cup, Joe Root still remains a
pivotal player for this England side. Aside from the fact that he is England’s
best player of spin, he has an enviable record in Indian conditions as well.
The fact that he had 2 months to prepare on almost all the World Cup venues by
being a part of the IPL will hold him and England in good stead heading into
the tournament.
At 25, Sam Curran, England’s second-youngest player,
is more likely to have a major impact than Brook, who is the designated spare
hitter. Although Curran has only participated in 26 ODIs and his statistics are
not very impressive, he demonstrated in Australia last year that he thrives on
the big stage. Expect him to play a variety of roles during the competition.