Printed on: Oct 01, 2023
World Cups are, in no matter sport, meant to offer a stage on which the best expertise on the planet can showcase their talent.
These competitions pool the elite, thrust them into battle, and allow them to slug it out till one final victor emerges triumphant. In white-ball cricketing phrases, England have been high canine as of late and so they need to maintain onto their crown.
England’s Latest Success and World Cup Outlook
England’s World Cup Squad is right here 🏴
Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wooden, Chris Woakes.
COME ON ENGLAND 🏴🏴🏴 pic.twitter.com/odh8WYTcLN
— England’s Barmy Military 🏴🎺 (@TheBarmyArmy) September 17, 2023
After claiming 50-over honours in 2019, a T20 crown was secured on Australian soil in 2022. As double world champions, the English need to embrace the problem of heading into one other bid for international glory in 2023, with them being priced at 3/1 in Cricket World Cup winner odds.
India, as hosts, are additionally anticipated to carry out nicely, whereas the likes of Australia and Pakistan are all the time there or thereabouts when the largest of prizes are on the desk.
In a bid to make sure they defend their title, England have gathered a expertise pool so deep that not all the massive names have been picked. Amongst these to have been given the nod is Ben Stokes – the talismanic captain of the nation’s Take a look at crew.
Ben Stokes’ Accolades and Drive for Glory
World Cup opponents beware 👀
Ben Stokes is on a mission 🔥 pic.twitter.com/tGdJcT2vrK
— Sport360° (@Sport360) September 13, 2023
Having helped to achieve the summit, Stokes understandably needs to help efforts to stay on the loftiest of perches. He’s additionally removed from being alone relating to wanting much more medals so as to add to his assortment – as it’s these mementos that separate the nice from the nice.
He had supposedly retired from ODI cricket in June 2022, with the calls for of multi-format competitors thought-about to be “unsustainable”. His choice has now been reversed, a lot to the delight of England supporters and to the despair of many rivals.
Former Australia skipper Tim Paine has been among the many extra outspoken opponents to Stokes’ professional U-turn, saying: “It was a little bit of, ‘me, me, me’, there isn’t it? It was, ‘I’ll choose and I’ll select the place I need to play and after I need to play’, and, ‘I’ll play within the massive tournaments’.”
If anyone has earned the proper to make such selections – whether or not there’s a egocentric factor to them or not – it’s Stokes.
His exploits within the worldwide area have been superhuman at instances, with it being solely due to him that England are presently in possession of the ICC Males’s Cricket World Cup trophy. Specifically, his efforts on a memorable afternoon at Lord’s towards New Zealand again in 2019 at the moment are the stuff of sporting folklore.
Paine might not prefer it, and some others in all probability have grievances to air, however stated complaints will proceed to fall on deaf ears as England put together to fireplace in India with essentially the most damaging gamers at their disposal.