England finally managed to break their World Cup jinx in the last edition, defeating New Zealand in a historic final match. They will now look to defend the title as they take on the Black Caps for the inaugural match of the quadrennial event on 5th October.
England has only grown in strength since lifting the trophy. In 2022, they also lifted the World T20 title to become the first-ever team to lift both limited-overs titles at the same time. The team finished second on the Super League points table, winning 15 of the 24 matches in the cycle.
Given the bench strength of England, they are spoilt for choice as far as finalizing the squad is considered. They did announce a provisional 15-member squad last month but that is subject to change going forward.
Defending a World Cup title is not easy and only Australia has ever been able to achieve that in the 50-Over format. Can England become the second team to be able to do so?
Batsmen
Dawid Malan
Joe Root
Harry Brook
All-rounders
Ben Stokes
Moeen Ali
Sam Curran
Liam Livingstone
David Willey
Chris Woakes
Wicket-keepers
Jos Buttler (C)
Johnny Bairstow
Bowlers
Gus Atkinson
Reece Topley
Mark Wood
Adil Rashid
Under the tutelage of Brendon McCullum, England has adopted an aggressive style of batting, often referred to as the `Bazball approach´. Irrespective of the format, the England batsmen have tried to go after the bowlers, and have reaped the benefits.
This fearless brand of batting can be one of the biggest strengths for England. England has an excellent batting line-up, consisting of batsmen like Harry Brook, Joe Root, Johnny Bairstow, and Jos Buttler.
The team also has an excellent selection of all-rounders, which provide plenty of depth to the batting. Barring Gus Atkinson, all players in the squad have featured in the IPL at some stage, often in senior roles, and that will be a great advantage.
The seam attack has plenty of options and is capable of striking early blows.
The ruthless manner in which Jason Roy was removed from the squad and replaced by Harry Brook also shows that England is not afraid to take the tough decisions. That is something that will be valuable during a long World Cup 2023 campaign.
Looking at the well-balanced squad, there is nothing much that we can point out as a weakness. However, England are a bit thin in the spin department. Adil Rashid is the only full-time spinner. They will have to rely on Moeen Ali and Livingstone to fill in when the need arises.
If we nit-pick a bit, then the ability of some of the English batters to adapt to low and slow conditions that they might come up against is also something of a slight worry. Playing in the subcontinent is not foreign to the English players anymore but it definitely does bring them a bit closer to the chasing teams.
5-10-23 England vs New Zealand Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
10-10-23 England vs Bangladesh HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala
15-10-23 England vs Afghanistan Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi
21-10-23 England vs South Africa Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
26-10-23 England vs Sri Lanka M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
29-10-23 England vs India Ekana Stadium, Lucknow
4-11-23 England vs Australia Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
8-11-23 England vs Netherlands MCA Stadium, Pune
11-11-23 England vs Pakistan Eden Gardens, Kolkata
England would have been thrilled with the venues that have been assigned to them for World Cup 2023. They do not play a single match in Chennai and only one in New Delhi. Most of their other venues (Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Dharamshala) are batter-friendly or will bring their seamers into play.
England can utilize its batting depth to the fullest and overpower its opponents. Playing Afghanistan in New Delhi is where you might see England falter a bit but apart from that, England would not worry about venues for any of its matches.
We do see its match against Australia in Ahmedabad (potentially high-scoring) and against India in Lucknow (spin will play a big role) as ones that it could have trouble winning. South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium is a mouth-watering encounter but if England ends up losing any of these three matches, we don’t think they will blame the venues.
Adil Rashid and Mark Wood suffered from cramps and sore heels respectively during the series against New Zealand but are likely to be fit in time for the World Cup.
Top run-scorer in 2023
Dawid Malan is in sensational form this year and has top-scored for England. He has scored 591 runs at an average of 73.87 and a strike rate of 96.56.
Top wicket-taker in 2023
Adil Rashid has picked up 15 wickets in 7 matches at a bowling strike rate of 24.80 and an average of 25.20.
Most runs: Ben Stokes
Ben Stokes played an important role in helping England lift their maiden ODI World Cup title in 2019. He finished as their top-scorer with 465 runs. He hasn’t played much ODI cricket since then due to various injuries and even announced his retirement from the format in 2022. However, he has reversed his decision to help his team defend the title.
Since coming back, Stokes has scored a century and a half-century in his 3 innings, including smashing the highest-ever individual score by an English batsman in ODIs. Looking at his form, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him topping the chart yet again.
Top bowler: Mark Wood
While Mark Wood made his ODI debut in 2015, he hasn’t been a regular in the team. However, he has been bowling well in the buildup to this tournament. He picked up 11 wickets in 4 IPL matches earlier this year, brilliantly exploiting the conditions.
Though he has stiff competition from the likes of Reece Topley and Adil Rashid, we think that Mark Wood will be an important cog in England’s bowling attack.
