World Cup 2019: 3 Reasons why England aren’t the favourites anymore to win the tournament

The entire build-up to the 2019 World Cup was mostly about England and how strong the Brits are while playing at home. Experts across the cricketing fraternity believed that England are the overwhelming “Favourites”, a tag that is mostly associated with Australia or a couple of times India going into the showpiece events. Well, both the teams have justified by laying hands on the coveted cup when they were tagged favourites, India in 1982 & 2011 and Australia to become five-time champions.

This is the 12^th edition of the World Cup, 5^th being hosted by England, a tag which has slowly piled up pressure and currently put them on the double-edged sword. Their unexpected slump to Pakistan in their second league game looked like a roost dreaming about a big good meal. It was as well wake up call to Morgan & Co. Again their loss to Sri Lanka was another upset for them considering Sri Lanka’s shattered form. England were expected to decimate them especially after restricting Lankan to a mere 232 before the hosts messed up in jeopardy while chasing.

The loss to their arch-rivals Australia on Tuesday has put England in a huge spot of bother. Now they will be taking on the two top sides — India and New Zealand — in their last two league matches, a loss in either of the match will be the last nail into their coffin. stepping into the tournament team England was considered the complete team but their unusual setbacks sent them back to hermits as the history of England cricket repeated in itself. Let’s look at 3 reasons why England aren’t actually the favourites to win this World Cup.

1. Past World Cup records dent players’ morale

England last played a World Cup final way back in 1992 where they lost to Pakistan. Since then they couldn’t even make the semi-finals and their abysmal performance in the 2015 World Cup Down Under keep them staring down the barrel.

Their World Cup record will keep the team next to nil in terms of confidence coming into the mega event with a mountain of hopes to end the World Cup drought. If they don’t win the World Cup this time around, the tag of “favourites” might well turn into the tag of “Chokers” and the team might as well already felt the heat.

2. Lack of experience in the presence of x-factor

The likes of Kevin Pieterson, Michael Vaughan and even Virat Kohli have rated Barbados born Jofra Archer as England’s X- factor ahead of the World Cup. Jofra has definitely been in sensational form in the tournament picking up 16 wickets in just 7 games and consistently bowling between 145-153 kmph.

Jofra has raw pace, but what he doesn’t have is an experience of playing at the highest level in this format and especially the World Cup which is vital in a long tournament. The way to handle such pressure comes only with experience and Jofra’s lack of experience came in fore. His bowling line was exposed by the Australian batters and the horrendous shots with his willow against Sri Lanka couldn’t help the x-factor come into execution.

3. Pitches might as well turn the tables for England

For all the flair and power of England’s batting, the batters fail to play against spinners on the damp tracks. The current condition in the World Cup looks really tough for Morgan & Co. as the pitches are turning spin-friendly. There is a bigger challenge for the Brits ahead as they India and the Kohli’s tweakers are in their element. Also in their last league match against Kiwis might also be a tough nut to crack.

Jason Roy looked like a fish out of the water when playing spinners in the IPL while Morgan too struggles against the ball turning away. Stokes and Buttler don’t have great records against spinners.

So with all these factors in the mix, it would be safe to say that England isn’t the “favourites” anymore.

~Written by Parth Parekh