World Cup 2019: Why tournament favorites England are imploding

All that dominance for nothing? England have been the proverbial team to beat in ODI cricket for a couple of years now, and their fans might have felt that this time it's coming home. It, being the World Cup of cricket, a game whose modern version originated in these very shores.

The setting was perfect. The hosts were the No. 1 team in the world, they had a devastating batting line-up that bats till the last man, a well-rounded bowling attack with serious pace and useful spin and a dynamic captain in Eoin Morgan.

They came into the tournament in full bloom as well, decimating Pakistan in a bilateral ODI series where the might of their willow resounded across the world.

A bright start

It seemed England had carried that form into the tournament proper as well with them getting the better of old rivals South Africa without breaking a sweat in the tournament opener. It was a characteristic England performance with the team scoring 300-plus while cruising and the bowlers doing the rest.

It had seemed at that point that the Englishmen would be an indomitable force as the tournament heated up.

A see-saw campaign

Then the first clouds started hovering on the horizon - literally. As the tournament began getting disrupted by rainfall, England's campaign also took a surprise hit against Pakistan in a classic match.

The Asians had been thoroughly decimated by the same side in the series preceding the Cup, but they came out all guns blazing in this league game, scoring a mammoth 348/8 that England failed to chase down despite Joe Root and Jos Buttler getting centuries.

Jason Roy's brilliant innings ensured England returned to winning ways against Bangladesh, while Jofra Archer asserted himself with three wickets to complete a facile win against West Indies.

Things got better against Afghanistan as Morgan slammed 17 sixes to help England to an unconquerable 397/6. It seemed all was well once again in the English empire.

From bad to worse

Then the skeletons began to pop out of the closet. On a sticky pitch and against a resurgent Sri Lankan bowling led by Lasith Malinga, England crumbled in a thriller, failing to chase down 232, thereby opening up the tournament.

Then lightning struck twice as, in the crunch game at Lord's against the tournament's most improved side Australia, England got all out once again while chasing a challenging total. Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff breathed fire with their late swing to wreak havoc after David Warner and Aaron Finch had negated challenging conditions to take Australia to an impressive total.

The empire is now surely crumbling.

What has gone wrong?

For starters, England, with the best batting line-up on paper in the Cup, have just not come good when they have needed to. They got all out in two consecutive chases against Sri Lanka and Australia, and that will worry them no end.

Against Sri Lanka, the need of the hour was for someone to just bat through the innings but no one, not Root nor Morgan, two of the best in the business, stood up to the task. Their temperament again failed the test when they needed to see out the opening spell of the two Aussie quicks on Monday.

Clearly, the issue is not of talent and bombast, as the Englishmen have delivered that a lot in other matches. The issue is of handling pressure - something only Ben Stokes has managed in heroic fashion throughout.

Barring Archer, the bowling has also been insipid, especially in very helpful conditions against Australia where the opening bowlers pitched way too short and failed to take advantage of the swing available.

The spinners have also not come to the party the way those of some other teams such as India have. Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali have failed to assert their dominance over opponents.

Worse still, a brilliant fielding side like England were unusually sloppy in the crunch game against Australia. All these factors point to one thing: as the league stage draws to a close, England are struggling to keep their nerves the way they have so successfully done over the last two years.

They are no doubt hampered by the loss of the swashbuckling Jason Roy, but the 11 they are putting out should be capable enough to bring the team home. It is the burden of expectations and years of failures that are weighing down the Englishmen, a psychological cross that they must learn to bear.

Morgan is putting up a brave face after the successive losses.

"We are in charge of how we go from here on in," the England captain said after the defeat.

They are, but they now face a must-win situation against two of the strongest sides in the tournament, India and New Zealand. Will they regain their mental toughness? Will the real England turn up? Only time will tell.

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