In 42 years of trying England have never won a major global one-day international trophy but hopes are high they can finally put an end to that damning statistic as the host nation of Champions Trophy.
Eoin Morgan’s men have come a long way in a short space of time since a humiliating first-round exit at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand saw them labelled “an analogue team in a digital age”.
Just over two years since a defeat by Bangladesh in Adelaide sealed their embarrassing first-round exit from the 2015 World Cup, England face the Tigers in the Champions Trophy opener at The Oval on Thursday with genuine optimism they can at last win a first major one-day international tournament.
Proof of their resurgence came when they posted a world record ODI score of 444 for three against Pakistan at Trent Bridge last year. With their current squad, they are more than capable of going the full distance at home.
Past History
However, in the past, England have been beaten in two title-deciding matches in the Champions Trophy, the ‘mini World Cup’, on home soil when well-placed.
In 2004, they reduced the West Indies to 147 for eight chasing 218 only to suffer a two-wicket defeat.
Yet what happened at Edgbaston four years ago, in the last Champions Trophy final, was arguably even worse.
England, with many of the current squad involved, eventually needed 20 off 16 balls with six wickets in hand – an unlosable position from which they duly lost to India.
England will look to underline just how much they have moved on from that match in the tournament opener.
Player to watch out for : Ben Stokes
In all-rounder Ben Stokes they have one of the world’s best. The Durham hero was paid a record $2.16 million to take part in the Indian Premier League being named the tournament’s most valuable player on the field as well.
Stokes would be the first to say England are more than a one-man team but if anyone sums up their revival in limited overs cricket it is the all-rounder.
That same uninhibited approach, albeit with a few refinements, remains at the heart of left-handed batsman Stokes’s approach at the crease.
For all the 25-year-old’s power strokeplay – as exemplified in his blistering 79-ball 101 featuring 11 fours and three sixes during England’s two-run win in the second one-day international against South Africa at Southampton on Saturday – Stokes’s batting is based on a sound straight drive.
His aggressive approach is one that has served him well in all formats, as he showed with a blistering Test-match 258 from 198 balls against South Africa at Cape Town last year.
On his day, and in the right conditions, he can also be an effective right-arm swing bowler.
But in an age where all bowlers can get ‘collared’ in white-ball cricket, Stokes suffered when, having to defend 19 in the last over of the 2016 World Twenty20 final in Kolkata, he was hit for four successive sixes by Carlos Brathwaite as the West Indies completed an improbable victory.
England’s hope is that this remains his lone ‘nightmare’ spell with the ball, with Stokes resilient enough to absorb the experience.
However, Stokes’s left knee, which was operated on last year, however, is preventing him from doing much bowling at the moment.
The joint is not yet quite the topic of national conversation that Denis Compton’s knee was when the England batting great was having injury problems in the 1950s and Durham star Stokes tried to play down concerns by saying Saturday: “It’s just the bowling that’s getting affected by my knee. Batting, fielding and running around isn’t an issue.”
England will settle for that.
We produced some fine individual performances in the series against South Africa.
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 30, 2017
Which was your favourite? pic.twitter.com/dBpzV7QFw1
“I haven’t seen a team win a global tournament playing defensively. It’s always a team that backs itself and plays bold cricket. From that point of view the message won’t change.”
– England coach Trevor Bayliss
Squad
Eoin Morgan (Captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood.
With inputs from AFP
