6 reasons England were eliminated from the T20 World Cup

So, the record stands- no team has successfully defended its T20 title, with England being the latest casualty. England crashed out of the tournament after their 19 run defeat at the hands of the hosts Sri Lanka. England began their campaign securing a thumping 116 run victory against Afghanistan. Luke Wright starred for England with a 55 ball 99 and single handedly took it away from the minnows. The bowlers bowled well too and all contributed to share the wickets.

Next up was India, a stern test for the English. India batted first and batted well to set a target of 171. England bowlers were taken to all parts of the ground; the pick of the bowlers being Swann- 1/17 and Finn 2/34. England started poorly, losing a wicket (Hales) in the first over with just 2 runs on the board. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were nothing less than clueless against the Indian spin bowling. After restricting Afghanistan to just 80 in the previous match, they got bundled out for 80 themselves against the mighty Indians. Still, they made it to the Super eights owing to a win against the Afghans.

The tough test was to start here on, with the commencement of the super eights. England were up against the dangerous Windies with the likes of Gayle, Bravo, and Pollard in their ranks. West Indies won the toss and chose to bat. England were under pressure only after a few overs as Gayle and Charles took on the bowling. Gayle was dismissed for 58, the scoreboard reading 106 after 11 overs, but Charles continued, scoring 84, and a late flurry by Bravo and Russell got them to a respectable 179. Chasing the total, England got off to their worst possible star losing Kieswetter in the first over without opening his account. Although Morgan (71 off 36 balls) and Hales (68 off 51) put up a fight, but it was for a losing cause and West Indies emerged victorious by 15 runs.

It was now a must win game for England against the Kiwis. New Zealand managed a score of 148 batting first, restricted by an excellent bowling spell by Finn returning figures of 3-16 from his overs. Chasing the total, England again had an early hiccup losing Kieswetter. Their star of the Afghanistan then came in scoring a blistering 76 proving Luke was indeed the ‘WRIGHT’ choice.

After West Indies beat New Zealand earlier in the day, England had their work cut out. The only way they could make a cut into the semis was by beating the Lankans. It was always going to be difficult to beat the Lankans in their own backyard, countering their spin attack, which was the biggest worry after what happened against India.

As expected, England disappointed and lost the game by 19 runs. It was not the spin, but the slinger Malinga who found them clueless this time around. England yet again failed to build a solid platform and lost quick wickets early on in the innings putting pressure on the inexperienced middle order to do a little too much. The result was an England loss and an earlier than expected exit. Although there was some resistance from Samit Patel and a late cameo by Swann, but they were never really in the game.

The apt word to describe England’s performance in the World Cup would be ‘DISMAL’.

Now, from being the World Champions to dismal, there must be some reasons, and a reason of note.

Let’s have a look at some of the major reasons for England’s exit:

1) Not playing in the IPL- This is one of the major reasons for their early departure. One would be wondering, why so? I’ll make it a little clearer. Malinga who could only take 3 wickets from 5 matches, managed 3 in just 5 balls against the English. One of the reasons is, he plays every year in the IPL and batsmen are used to facing him. They read him pretty well now and henceforth, he hasn’t enjoyed the success he was used to once. Also, had England players played in the IPL, they might have found a new young talented player, like India find almost every year. Players playing in the IPL know the game of their team-mates from various countries, which helps at the international stage.

2) No Pietersen- Now, not having a Player of the caliber of Pietersen in your team for whatever reason is going to come back to haunt you. He has the IPL experience, plays spin well and puts the pressure back on the bowlers. English batsmen would have found it much easier had he been around.

3) Inexperienced middle order-England could never build a strong enough platform for the middle order to explode and be their own. Early wickets always had a pressure on the middle order and they weren’t able to play freely. The inexperienced middle order, hence, faltered.

4) Exclusion of Owais Shah -Also, England’s one of the best players of spin bowling, Owais Shah was kept out from the squad. He is too good a player to be left out and with the IPL experience under his belt, he would have come in handy for the English.

5) No fixed playing XI-Then, England had the India problem; don’t know what the best combination is. They made 3 changes for the do or die match against the Lankans, fielding Bopara who has been terribly out of form was indeed a one which leaves eyes wide open.

6) No subcontinental experience-They had talented youngsters, the likes of Bairstow and Butler who had done exceedingly well in their domestic leagues, but found it really hard on the sub continent wickets. Had they been allowed for the IPL, they would have had experience and a better World Cup performance to show for them.

Hence, a very important lesson for the ECB is to make a schedule so as to accommodate a window for the IPL which will help England grow and perform better in different conditions. If this doesn’t happen, England might distance itself from World Cricket and find themselves looking down the barrel.