India await imploding England today
● It’s the pitches. It’s the former players. It’s anyone but England themselves.
As the excuses Eoin Morgan’s team make for a shaky World Cup campaign mount, you can hear Virat Kohli sniggering. India, the only unbeaten team in the tournament, await imploding England at Edgbaston today.
Another win for the Indians and England will not only have to beat slick, savvy New Zealand in their last league match, but also hope that other teams do them favours.
They could end up crying at their own party, and out of the semifinals.
How things have changed since you could smell the smugness that found its voice at the Oval on May 30. “Cricket’s coming home,” rose the beery refrain as England completed victory over SA.
Little did we know that beating Faf du Plessis’ team at this tournament would be nothing special. A month on, Morgan’s miserables have lost to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia. Once were favourites, now are fading.
After Kevin Pietersen branded Morgan “scared” for appearing to back away when facing Mitchell Starc, Jonny Bairstow moaned: “People are waiting for us to fail. It’s a typical English thing to do.”
Michael Vaughan called Bairstow’s comments part of a “negative, pathetic mindset”. Back came Bairstow: “Bloody hell. That’s pretty rich.”
And while he was at it: “The pitches that we’ve been playing on the last two years are surely the pitches we [should] be playing on in a World Cup. I don’t know why they’ve changed.”