England struggling to relive former glories
England know what it takes to win the World
Twenty20 but it seems like the current crop of players are some way short of
going all the way in the tournament this year.
It has been a winter to forget as far as English
cricket goes.
From an Ashes series whitewash to their
archest of rivals Australia, to disappointment in the shorter forms of the game
Down Under, to the loss of Test coach Andy Flower, to the omission of Kevin
Pietersen… the list does go on and on.
The national side have been keen to move on
from all the ‘unpleasantness’ from over the winter but results on the field
simply have not been improving ahead of England’s start to the World Twenty20
in Bangladesh.
At present it would take someone brave to back
head coach Ashley Giles and his men to go all the way in the tournament and pundits can use bet365
to back some of the move favoured candidates to lift the trophy in Bangladesh.
A victory for England in their final
Twenty20 encounter of their recent series with the West Indies looked like it
could be the start of something promising but pre-tournament friendly defeats
to the Windies and India have taken Giles’ men back to the drawing board.
At present the lack of boundaries,
especially sixes, seems to be England’s undoing but they certainly have the
personnel to smashes the ball into the stands down in Bangladesh.
With the likes of Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan
and Jos Buttler in their ranks, finding the boundary should not be an issue.
However the confidence levels in the camp
appear to be low, which is understandable considering the winter mentioned
earlier. Any team would struggle to bounce back from that.
The hectic schedule which has not given the
English players too much time to reflect, has not been helpful and then we can
consider the personnel missing from the squad.
Pietersen has already
been mentioned but he was key in helping England win this competition in the
Caribbean back in 2010, as was now retired spinner Graeme Swann.
At their prime that duo would have walked
into any Twenty20 team in the world and now both players are out of the frame
for obviously different reasons.
Yorkshire’s Joe Root was starting to find a
bit of form in the recent ODI series in the West Indies but a fractured thumb
has ruled him out of England’s tournament.
It seems at the moment the cricket gods are
working against England but again there is quality in this side and getting
confidence back in the ranks is the key.
A positive start is important for any side
but even more so far Giles’ team.
Wins in the opening games can get the ball
rolling and maybe some scalps against some of the stronger teams in the
competition could follow.
However defeats early doors could see this
being a long old tournament for the confidence battered English.
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