BENGALURU: Although the core of the England team has remained the same, the reigning champions are on the cusp of being dumped out of the competition. Their slide has been unnerving.
While Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Joe Root and Ben Stokes still man the batting, Mark Wood and Adil Rashid are integral to the bowling line-up. All were part of the previous World Cup triumph and yet, England are on the ropes.
What has changed in the intervening period since October 2019? One reason, perhaps, is that England came in undercooked. Over the past four years, they have featured in 114 white-ball international matches and only 46 of them were ODIs. Australia, another team which has struggled in the competition, have competed in 118 matches of which 49 were ODIs. In contrast, table-toppers India played 157 white-ball matches of which 68 were ODIs.
Now, while Australia have picked themselves up, England still have their backs to the wall. They run into Sri Lanka at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday, a face-off that appears more like a knockout round since the Lankans, like England, have just the one win in four matches.
This fact is not lost on England. "We've been in this position before, probably not to this degree, but we know everything is a must-win. We must get our confidence up and perform well. We must bat and bowl and field better than we have done so far in this tournament," England's vice-captain Moeen Ali admitted on the eve of the match.
Ali, who was benched after the nine-wicket loss to New Zealand in their campaign opener, summed it up nicely. England have fallen woefully short in every department, including strategy. Against South Africa, they went with five specialist bowlers and six batters, yet conceded 399 runs in an embarrassing 229-run defeat. They have chopped and changed the team in four matches thus far, but barring their 137-run win against Bangladesh, their performance has been uninspiring.
Dawid Malan and Joe Root have been the only batters to show some pluck, while the bowlers have struggled to get their act together. A ray of hope is that the Chinnaswamy stadium is batting-friendly and that should aid the likes of Root, Bairstow and Buttler.
Sri Lanka managed their first win against Netherlands last week after three losses on the trot. Sri Lanka's struggle started even before the competition, when they had to battle into the showpiece event through the qualifiers.
Once in India, their skipper Dasun Shanaka was ruled out of the competition after suffering a torn quadricep. Then pacer Matheesha Pathirana's battling form was compounded with a shoulder injury which has resulted in the seasoned Angelo Mathews being drafted in from the traveling reserve resource. The team will take heart from the return of Mathews, who comes in with a wealth of experience. Dhananjaya de Silva could make way for the experienced pacer.
A vital sub-plot in this contest will be that of England going up against a team coached by their former coach Chris Silverwood, who was unceremoniously dumped after the 2021-22 Ashes debacle. With both team's campaigns hinging on this match, an exciting contest may well be on the cards.
