Aging England’s Cricket World Cup Title Defense In Ruins

Pathum Nissanka’s booming six over long-on was a resounding punctuation on Sri Lanka’s absolute domination of defending World Cup champions England. They won with a massive 148 balls remaining. A match supposed to be played over eight hours was done in half that.

Even before the humiliation was complete, England knew their fate. With Sri Lanka cruising to the mediocre target of 157, feasting on tame bowling and ragged fielding, resigned England’s players proudly acknowledged the end of their reign as white-ball champions.

In the last few painstaking minutes, as it became obvious their title defence was over even though mathematical equations provide faint hope, England players acknowledged each other with pats on the back and applause. These veterans – with every player aged over 30 for the first time in their history – were going down together as they knew this golden era was done.

The recriminations have started for England, who will likely finish with the ignominy of the worst title defence in tournament history. It might end up being worse than their humiliating showing at the 2015 World Cup, which ushered England’s white-ball revolution highlighted by winning the subsequent event so memorably at home four years later and last year’s T20 World Cup.

After 2015, for the first time in a traditional conservative cricket country that has always held the five-day format on a pedestal, England prioritized the 50-over format and it paid dividends with that unforgettable triumph at Lord’s in July 2019.

Since then England expectedly emphasized the T20 World Cup – a tournament they had never won having fallen so agonizingly short in 2016. Successive T20 World Cups – due to the Covid-19 pandemic – meant England were focused on the shortest format and again that paid off handsomely.

But it was at the expense of ODI cricket and England were brutally exposed during this dire campaign, where they have looked like the laughing stock of old. They’ve backed their aging stars and you couldn’t really blame them for that considering all the success over these years. But an old team can look over the hill quickly and that’s what has happened to England at this World Cup.

While wise pundits had a hunch that England had peaked, almost nobody picked them to actually miss out on the semi-finals let alone endure such a debacle.

Agonizingly, due to the bloated nature of a tournament lacking the suspense of a meatier knockout stage, England still have four matches to play. No one believes – not even in their own dejected camp – that England can conjure a remarkable turnaround and somehow scrape in with the help of fortuitous results.

England might as well turn to some youth for the remainder of this glum campaign, including recalling young star batter Harry Brook. They will be hoping to get something out of this dire tournament. After all, due to the saturation of ICC global events, there is another World Cup in just eight months – the T20 showpiece partly played in the U.S.

There will be plenty of questions until then with a rejuvenation clearly needed although England could well be tempted to stick with their core for another title defence.

More immediately, England can still get something out of this World Cup. They can make bitter rival Australia feel a little nervous about their semi-final prospects with an upset on November 4.

But it’s probably delusional thinking England can rewind the clock right now.