World Cup Teams Watch - England: A free-firing cannon in white-ball cricket

The defending champions in both the white-ball formats, England will be entering the World Cup in a bit of bother - if you can call it that - as the Three Lions have played the least number of ODIs in recent times compared to the other big teams, barring Australia. However, that doesn’t make them any less dangerous, given their recent results and going by the recent hype around ‘Bazball’ and England cricket, Jos Buttler’s men are certainly favourites. They are one side who start peaking at the exact moment and the last four years have taught us enough that England is one particular side that can never be put down.

However, from 1992 to 2015, England didn’t win a single knock-out game in the 50-over World Cup and had a flurry of memes trailing in their wake. However, come 2019, the entire team saw a paradigm shift in their momentum and the kind of showdowns we have seen since then, it has been nothing short of wondrous.

Despite the selection kinks that saw England forced to bring back Harry Brook to the side after initial snub due to the unavailability of Jason Roy, the Three Lions have always had enough surprises up their sleeves whenever they have taken the yard in the shorter formats of the game.

Recent Form:

Talking about recent games, England’s important chapters in the last few months came against New Zealand where they went down 1-0 only to return stronger and beat the Kiwis by a 3-1 margin. In the last 13 months, they have just played nine ODIs, and it remains to be seen how they warm up to the occasion.

X-Factors:

Harry Brook 

Harry Brook was included into the side way too late as he came on as a replacement for Jason Roy. However, knowing the explosive talent that Brook is, he can turn out to be one of England’s most important players. With all said and done, the right-hander has already proven his mettle in the Indian conditions during the IPL. His ability to explode even before the bowlers are aware of where the attack is going to come from can take the game away from the counterparts.

Ben Stokes

Ben Stokes has had his struggles with injury, but such is his impact with the bat that he was asked to come out of ODI retirement. Fresh off a magical 182 vs New Zealand at The Oval in mid-September, Stokes, if fully fit, will undoubtedly hold the aces for the Three Lions in that middle order. He has a particular predilection of coming alive in the particular big matches, may it be the 2019 World Cup final or the 2022 T20 World Cup final and it remains to be seen how he performs this time around.

Reece Topley

Reece Topely’s towering stature, his brilliant form in the Hundred and the Vitality Blast T20, his impressive start in the IPL speaks volumes about how dangerous he can be. Steaming in with his impressive brand of left arm seam and a pretty high release point, Topley can spark a shade of doubt in the batter’s mind when he frequents that corridor of uncertainty. To add to all of this, he operates in the 140 kph zone quite often, proving his worth for sure. 

Areas to watch out for:

England is almost a complete unit and there are hardly any flaws that can bother the Three Lions. However, if there is one thing that they need to be careful about is that they have the tendency to slip up against weaker teams against them. Alongside that the lack of proper ODI match practice can also pose a few initial challenges, however if they are taken care of, well, we have another favourite amongst us.

Squad for World Cup:

Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (C & WK), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Harry Brook, David Willey, Reece Topley and Gus Atkinson