ICC World Cup 2019: 3 Things that might end England's maiden World Cup dream

#2. The Spin nemesis

Kuldeep Yadav celebrating after taking a wicket

England has been time and again agonised by spin. They seem to be an easy prey whenever the conditions have suited the slow bowlers. England has traditionally never been good against spin and their poor subcontinental records in recent years have been largely affected due to their inability to tackle spin.

England's issues against spin came under the scanner when they suffered the worst collapse in T20I history after they lost their last 8 wickets for 8 runs on February 2017 at Bangalore against India. Yuzvendra Chahal, the Indian leg-break spin bowler, bagged six wickets in that match. Most recently they saw their old demons haunt them once again, this time in their home soil when Kuldeep Yadav, Indian chinaman bowler scalped 5 wickets in the opening T20 match of the 3-match T20 series.

Kuldeep also accounted for 9 of the 19 England's wicket that fell in the recently concluded 3-match ODI series.

While England's pitches are not known for favouring spin to that extent, pitches at Trent Bridge, Edgbaston and Old Trafford do favours spin where they are set to play Pakistan, India and Afghanistan respectively in the World Cup 2019.

England needs to address their spin issues and they must improve their skills against spin before the tournament where they are most likely to face the spin trial of Shadab, Rashid Khan, Tahir, Sodhi, Santner, Kuldeep, Chahal etc.