Is This England's Best Chance To Lift The Cup?

If there is one mutual inclusion in every cricket enthusiast’s qualifiers list for the ICC World Cup 2019, it is England. The inventors of this gentleman’s sport have never been lucky enough to call themselves the champions of cricketing world’s most esteemed tournament.

As an ardent Australia fan, my heart and soul are in support of the men in yellow but the cricket aficionado in me knows that if there is anyone who has the strongest chance to take this prestigious trophy home, it’s the Englishmen.

Beginning in 1975, England has almost always been a top contender but they never executed their plans adequately. After winning all the group matches, they faced defeat against Australia credit to Gary Gilmour’s all-around performance mainly his 6-14 restricting the hosts to a mere 93.

4 years down the line in the final of the 1978 Cricket World Cup, Sir Vivian Richards’ impressive 138* took that year’s champions to a mammoth score of 286 in response to which England fought hard but collapsed losing 6 wickets in just 11 runs and yet again the hosts failed to give them spectators a treat.

Cut to the iconic 1983 World Cup for all Indians, England were the hosts for the third time in a row and yet they were unsuccessful in capitalizing the home advantage.

England made it to the finals yet for the second time in the 1987 edition, however, losing to Australia by 7 runs in a thrilling final held in Eden Gardens Kolkata.

The next edition of the WC also featured England in their finals only to end up giving Pakistan their one and only world cup win. They were defeated by 22 runs as the team couldn’t support Neil Fairbrother and Derek Pringle. This was their last world cup final feature till date.

Years passed and England continued to always remain one of the top teams. They never played bad cricket, but they just weren’t good enough. After the 2015 shame (and excessive trolling), England has come back strong this time with a close to perfect combination of players.

Leading the side for the second time, Eoin Morgan is coming in with a lethal squad. With explosive openers like Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow with a strike rate of over 100 followed by the classy and forever bankable Joe Root. Jos Buttler, their wicketkeeper is the perfect man to enter 30 overs into the game who unleashes his big guns from ball one. The three all-rounders of the highest quality in the side namely Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes give their team the perfect balance. Guiding the bowling attack from the front is one of England’s quickest, Mark Wood. Liam Plunkett and Tom Curran follow along with newly joined young Jofra Archer. Never has England made a better decision than the eventual inclusion of Archer in the team.

After the 2015 CWC fiasco, England's taken up the challenge and their graph has only gone upwards. They've rebuilt and restructured, tried every team combination, played multiple series' at home and away with big names like India, Australia and Pakistan. Reaching the finals of the T20 World Cup was definitely a high for their team in general but they were only eyeing 2019's big prize.

They've scored over 37 300+ scores in the last four years and won 57 out of the 87 ODIs they've played. Australia's poor performance and the lack of games of NZ and RSA only helped England get to the top and become world number one. Nothing boosts your confidence more than entering the World Cup as #1.

England has been a part of the WC finals three times and never have they won. They’ve proven that they have the talent but instead of peaking at the right time, they lose conviction and collapse. Whether it’s the mental block of their performance over the years or their cheeky fans who contribute to the murder of their self-assurance, I cannot say. What I do know is that we all have probably have another team to be tagged as ‘chokers’.