World cup 2007: Review of Cricket Teams - England

About England Cricket

The founders of Cricket, England, have the distinction of not winning even a single ICC ODI event comprising of all test-playing nations. From the era of heavily bearded Grace to the heavily built Flintoff, the World Cup has been a unrealistic dream for this British side. Not known for their adaptability skills, the English side struggles whenever they are on tour. And this time, the World Cup is in the Carribean, which wont make it anyway easier for them.

Win-Loss Record

The World-Cup record of the English side is not good. Never failing to reach atleast the final-four stage in each of the first 5 World Cups, they did not even manage to go past round-1 in the last two editions. In the recent home World Cup, they were eliminated in the first round along with SriLanka. In the last edition, they denied to go to Zimbabwe and forfeited the match, hence allowing Zimbabwe to go through to the second stage. The then captain, Nasser Hussain, was criticised a lot for his decision to forfeit the match. Eventually, he retired after the World Cup.

Current England team players

This is the current probables list,

James Anderson
Ian Bell
Ravi Bopara
Stuart Broad
Glen Chapple
Rikki Clarke
Paul Collingwood
Alastair Cook
Jamie Dalrymple
Andrew Flintoff
Ashley Giles
Matthew Hoggard
Ed Joyce
Amjad Khan
Jon Lewis
Mal Loye
Sajid Mahmood
Paul Nixon
Graham Onions
Monty Panesar
Kevin Pietersen
Liam Plunkett
Matt Prior
Chris Read
Owais Shah
Vikram Solanki
Andrew Strauss
Chris Tremlett
Michael Vaughan
Michael Yardy

England team Approach

This was the squad for the 2003 World Cup,

Hussain(c)
Stewart
Anderson
Blackwell
Caddick
Collingwood
Flintoff
Giles
Harmison
Hoggard
Irani
Knight
Trescothick
Vaughan
White

We could find just 6 out of the 15 people, who traveled to SouthAfrica in 2003, found a place in the current probables list.

This shows much has changed in the shorter version of the game for the Briton. The invent of Twenty-20 has been the major reason for the change. But injuries have hit them hard in the last year. After the Ashes high, their casualties list has gone only one way. The major advantage is having two potential match winners in the form of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff. They have to bank on this fact and hope these two to get their act together to have a successful World Cup.

Batting

South African born Pietersen and the future and the ex-captain, Flintoff are the destructors-in-chief. Collingwood, Bell and Vaughan are expected to play a major part as the wickets in the Carribean will suit their style of batting. Due to sudden exit of Trescothick and loss of form for Strauss, there is a big hole in the opening slot. The middle-overs will be crucial if the wickets are slow and low. And the English side has the right horses for those courses.

Bowling

With the sudden retirement decision of their premier fast bowler, Harmison, the English side will find it hard to replace him in such a short notice. Bowlers like Anderson, Mahmood should partner Flintoff and the part-timers like Collingwood and Darlymple will be handy in the Carribean surfaces. Giles and Monty are fighting for the sole spinner position with odds heavily favoring Monty. The English side will face problems in the power plays as they don't have the right combination to deal with the fielding restrictions and short boundaries.

Current form

Unlike 2005, 2006 has been a horrible year for England, to say the least. They won just 5 of their 15 ODIs last year. In the on-going tri-series, the English side has won just one out of their 5 matches played till now. Pieterson's injury has added the salt to injury. With the wicket keeper not yet decided and with all sort of batting and bowling woes, let me quote Michael Vaughan's own comments on the current English side, "In eight years in the England team, that was as low as I have ever seen players feel". Well, this shows their current status.

Cricket World cup 2007 Prediction

The English side are placed in Group - C along with the Fleming-led New Zealand, last time semi-finalists Kenya and John Davison led Canada. They have very good chance of making it to the super-eights if they avoid an upset against Kenya.

Other teams
Test playing Nations : India | Pakistan | West Indies | Sri Lanka | New Zealand | South Africa | England | Australia
Non test playing Nations : Canada | Bermuda | Scotland | Zimbabwe | Kenya | The Netherlands | Ireland | Bangladesh
Who will win Cricket world cup 2007?