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England, the defending champions of the ICC Cricket World Cup, has delivered an underwhelming performance, particularly with the bat in the tournament held in India this year, four years after capturing the prize at home in 2019. England's victory under the leadership of Eoin Morgan had sparked the white-ball cricket revolution which became a model for the rest of the world to follow.
As a part of this white-ball revolution, England played a fearless brand of cricket, hitting plenty of fours and sixes in their innings. It became very easy for this side to cross 300-run mark and even touch 400 runs. Players like Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler became some of the best white-ball stars on the planet. Every team was suddenly talking about being attacking from the very start in ODIs as well. But now four years later, England has failed to deliver halfway through the CWC 2023. They started off with a nine-wicket loss to New Zealand, in which they could make only 282 runs. They did bounce back with a huge roar against Bangladesh, but crushing losses to an up-and-coming Afghanistan and a ruthless South African side has left their fans disappointed. In these losses, England's famous and fearsome batting line-up was exposed and ripped apart. It could not display the ruthlessness and failed to bank on its depth, something which made England one of the most feared sides in the world. The result is, only one win in four matches so far. A huge factor of this decline is the form of skipper Jos Buttler himself. Buttler is one of the cleanest strikers of the ball and his exploits in England shirt and T20 leagues worldwide are a proof of it. But the batter has failed to conquer the Indian conditions. Batting in India in ODIs, Buttler has scored just 178 runs in 12 innings at a poor average of 14.83 and a strike rate of 100.56. He has smashed only 13 fours and seven sixes on Indian soil. His best score is just 43 while playing in world's most cricket-crazy country. Captain has failed to lead his side from the front with the bat and results are there for everyone to see in this World Cup. In this tournament, he has scored just 95 runs in five matches at an average of 19.00, with a strike rate of over 114. His best score is 43. Another star player, Joe Root has struggled in the powerplays and he fails to up the attack. In the first powerplay phase between overs 1-10 since 2020, Root has scored just 50 runs in 17 innings during this phase of the game, in 131 balls. He has been dismissed 10 times. His batting average in the first powerplay phase is just 5 since 2020 and his strike rate is shockingly low at 38.16. Instead of letting his arms loose and taking advantage of field restrictions like a batter does in powerplay, Root has played largely defensive cricket. England's first powerplay batting in this tournament has not been at its finest. Let us look at the numbers from every game. Either the batters have failed to score at a fast rate or the team has lost early wickets while trying to play attacking cricket. -51/1 against New Zealand, Ahmedabad -61/0 against Bangladesh, Dharamshala (won) -52/2 against Afghanistan, Delhi -67/4 against South Africa, Mumbai -59/2 against Sri Lanka, Bengaluru Coming to the match against Sri Lanka, England opted to bat first and were bundled out for 156 runs in just 33.2 overs. Ben Stokes (43), Jonny Bairstow (30) and Dawid Malan (28) put some decent contributions with the bat. Lahiru Kumara (3/35), Angelo Matthews (2/14) and Kasun Rajitha (2/36) were the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka. (ANI)
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