England braced for gruelling run as they prepare for Cricket World Cup defence
It is both the best and worst thing about cricket; there always seems to be a World Cup to win or defend just around the corner.
Whether it is the men or women, One-Day International or Twenty20; cricket is always looking towards its next big occasion. And this autumn it doesn’t get much bigger.
England return to India to play a World Cup for the first time since 2016 when, needing 19 runs from the final over of the T20 final, the West Indies broke English hearts off the bowling of current Test captain Ben Stokes.
Since then, though, England have gone on to win two global trophies – the famous super-over win in 2019, and the T20 World Cup last year.
So England head into the subcontinent on 5 October as defending champions, but they’re a very different team to four years ago.
And between now and then they have 11 short-form matches in just 28 days – seven One-Day Internationals and four T20s – starting today.
They take on New Zealand, their World Cup opening opponents, across four of each format before facing Ireland in three 50-over games.
But England are a changed side since their ODI World Cup victory. Out are 2019 captain Eoin Morgan and coach Trevor Bayliss, and in are Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott.
Mott joined from Australia’s women’s team after their World Cup win but has not had it all his own way, losing matches in a series win against Bangladesh earlier this year and suffering a series loss to South Africa. He did, though, lead England to the T20 World Cup last year.
The Test team have only just started learning how to lose but managed to fight their way out of a mini-rut to draw the Ashes.
One-Day World Cups see 10 teams play each other once with only the top four progressing, so there’s no room to start slowly.
The coming barrage of fixtures should allow England to get into the mentality of tournament cricket.
And the addition of three T20 matches could be a good way for Mott to test out different batting and bowling combinations in Bazball-style expressive mindset.
“I don’t think any of us are completely happy with the overall year that we’ve had,” he told ESPN in June.
“We’re definitely trying to get a lot better. But if you’d said to me, ‘You’re a year into the job, the results are what they are but you’’ve won a World Cup?’ I’d have said, ‘Yeah, I’ll take that any day’.”
England chief Rob Key said Mott and his England side would be judged on silverware.
They’ve already got a pretty significant piece of that, so now it is about continuing that success at the highest level and, for Mott, winning his first one-day trophy with England.
Winning in India is not easy and England have a history of reaching finals there before falling apart when it matters.
But under Mott they’ve won a World Cup already, and he will be hoping this summer’s final – should they get there – doesn’t get as close as it did in 2019.