England's world record : heroics or recent trend?

So we are living in an era where batsman have started scoring like it was never thought of before. There was a time, not quite long ago when 300 runs in an ODI were deemed as match winning, but now they are considered below par in many games. Take the recent England-Scotland ODI, where a huge total of more than 371 runs was set up by Scotland and England nearly chased it down. This trend is continuing in a way that yesterday England surpassed their own world record by a long distance when they amassed 481 runs. It was quite a fun at Trent Bridge, but not so for the Australian team or if you are an Australian fan. Not just in ODI's, in T20's batting has also seen a big revolution, as if T20 was not a revolution in itself. Just rewind back to the last year when an Afghan batsman smashed 214 runs in a T20 match.

The instance took place in Afghanistan's domestic cricket, where Afghanistan's wicketkeeper-batsman Shafiqullah Shafiq smashed 16 boundaries and 21 maximum's in his effort to score 214 runs. And for all the runs he scored, he took only 71 balls. His team with the help of his innings went on to score 351 runs and won the match by 244 runs.

Shafiqullah batting against Zimbabwe

Scoring a 50 in a T20 match is considered quite a valiant effort. Scoring a hundred is most of the times a match-winning effort. And yes, teams do score 200 in T20's but when a batsman has scored a double century in a T20, spare a thought for the bowlers.

Shafiqullah has already played 30 T20I's for Afghanistan with an average of 18.94 in which he has scored just one fifty, but this performance speaks wonders of the talent he has got. In April 2018, he then scored a fastest double century in Ahmed Shah Abdali 4-day tournament. It was the fastest double century in any first-class match. He took only 89 balls to score 200 not out meanwhile smashing 24 sixes, the most in any first-class innings.

The way batsmen are piling up huge totals and altering the record books, I don't think people should be too jolted of what England achieved yesterday. The day is not far when we'll see a total of 500 in some One Day International. But here is the question, will it be England or will it be against them? and the way England bowled against Scotland recently, don't be surprised if it comes from a low ranked team, for instance, Afghanistan against England.