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

#1. The tendency to choke at knockouts

Pakistan ended England's Champions Trophy dream

England has made it to 3 ODI World Cup finals and lost it every time. They have also been in two World T20 finals, winning one and losing the other. The T20 World Cup 2010 remains the only ICC event to be ever won by England.

In addition to this, they have been in ICC Champions Trophy final twice, losing on both occasions. This takes their tally of finals to 7 across tournaments while winning only once.

England has the tendency to choke whenever they reach the latter stages of the tournament. In the last ICC event final they played, England needed to defend 19 off the last over. However, they went on to lose the final after Carlos Braithwaite carted off 4 consecutive sixes of Ben Stokes's bowling in the final over to achieve a miraculous victory for the West Indies in the World T20 2016 final.

In the last ICC event, the Champions Trophy 2017, England were clear favourites to win the trophy and to end the quest for their maiden ODI tournament title. They reached the semifinal after topping the group stages and set a semi-final clash against the then 8th placed Pakistan.

However, their batting faltered at the most crucial junction and they were handed over a shock defeat in the semi-final by the eventual winners Pakistan. The tendency to choke at the ultimate and penultimate stage of the tournament might cost England the World Cup.