England achieve worst-ever record for defending champions in World Cup history amid disastrous campaign
Nothing is going right for England it seems as the batters haven't been able to perform and bowlers haven't been penetrative enough in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup. When it looked like the defending champions will finally make a mark, their batters disappointed again, against India.
England's embarrassing campaign in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup continued with their fifth loss in the tournament, this time to India and it will hurt probably the most as the defending champions were right in the game after the first innings but the batters disappointed once again as they fell short by 100 runs off India's 229-run score. England have won just one game in the tournament thus far and leave alone qualification for the semifinals, the defending champions are in danger of missing out on a spot in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
The top seven teams and hosts Pakistan qualify for the Champions Trophy based on the points table of the World Cup and England with losses to New Zealand, Afghanistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and India haven't helped themselves one bit and are required to win probably all of their remaining three games.
England's World Cup 2023 campaign is the worst ever for a defending champion losing five matches. Australia lost four games in the 1992 edition while Sri Lanka lost three matches in the 1999 edition but no team had lost five games in the next edition after winning the title.
Most defeats for defending champions in the next edition of the World Cup
5 - England (2023)*
4 - Australia (1992)
3 - Sri Lanka (1999)
3 - Australia (2019)
2 - West Indies (1983)
2 - India (1987)
2 - Pakistan (1996)
2 - Australia (2011)
1 - India (2015)
The batting collapse for England has become so normal that skipper Jos Buttler said that it was the same old story despite them restricting India to a chaseable score of 230. "Very disappointed. At the halfway stage, chasing 230 and seeing how wet it got, we fancied ourselves, same old story. I wasn't sure if dew would come or not. Just the gut feel said that we wanted to chase. That's as good as we've been with the ball throughout the tournament. We created good pressure, we bowled well, took wickets. If you said we are chasing 230, we would have been happy with that," Buttler said after the loss.
England have to face Australia, Pakistan and the Netherlands in their next three games and have to win all three to not just stay alive in the tournament but not miss out on Champions Trophy participation.