Defending champions England head into the 2023 Word Cup as one of the strongest teams on paper. Here is the team preview for England ahead of the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, including their World Cup history, squad, player to watch out for, predicted XI and more. A full preview of the 2023 World Cup appears in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly.

England at the 2023 Cricket World Cup: Team Preview

England have a strong and experienced squad containing several players who were either part of the 2019 World Cup victory or the 2022 T20 World Cup victory, or both. Ben Stokes’ return from ODI retirement augurs well for the team, as he showed during his epic 182 against New Zealand a couple of weeks back. Jason Roy’s ouster for Harry Brook indicates just how ruthless they are, and their recent 3-1 series victory over New Zealand also means they are in decent form as a team. Don’t be surprised if they manage to successfully defend their crown.

England’s ODI World Cup history

Having played in every edition of the World Cup of the game they invented, England finally managed to win the tournament for the first time in 2019. They had come close multiple times previously, in 1979, 1987, and 1999, when they finished as runners-up, but never managed to cross the line. In the subcontinent, England have qualified for the knockouts on each of the three occasions – in 1987, 1996, and 2011. They’d be hoping to go the distance for the second time in a row and become only the third team after West Indies and Australia to win consecutive men’s ODI World Cup trophies.

England at the 2023 Cricket World Cup: Full squad

Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.

Captain: Jos Buttler

Coach: Matthew Mott

Wisden Cricket Monthly’s Most Valuable Player: Joe Root

Heading into September ’s double-header against New Zealand and Ireland, Root hadn’t played a 50-over match of any kind for 14 months, but that shouldn’t be too much of a concern for a player who has found a repeatable and prolific formula in the format, making 16 hundreds (an England record) since debuting 10 years ago. Root’s mastery of spin will be invaluable in India, where he averages 59.

Players to watch: Adil Rashid

Amongst the partial changing of the guard from the last four years, the dipping in and out of the core group as and when the calendar has allowed, Rashid has been a near constant. Only Moeen Ali among England’s World Cup squad has played more ODIs than Rashid since the 2019 final, and none have taken more wickets than he has in that time. While their squad is awash with backup seam options, with variation to choose from in their plethora of left-armers, Rashid alone is trusted to get his job done.

England depend on his presence in their side more than any other player. While there’s firepower below the top order to bank on should Jonny Bairstow or Dawid Malan falter and bite in the tail in the event of a middle-order collapse, there’s no backup plan for Adil Rashid.

Read the piece on Adil Rashid here.

England at the 2023 Cricket World Cup: Predicted XI

Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c) (wk), Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Reece Topley.

England at the 2023 Cricket World Cup: Full schedule

Thursday, October 5: England v New Zealand (Ahmedabad), 2 pm
Tuesday, October 10: England v Bangladesh (Dharamsala), 10:30 am
Sunday, October 15: England v Afghanistan (Delhi), 2 pm
Saturday, October 21: England v South Africa (Mumbai), 2 pm
Thursday, October 26: England v Sri Lanka (Bengaluru), 2 pm
Sunday, October 29: India v England (Lucknow), 2 pm
Saturday, November 4: England v Australia (Ahmedabad), 2 pm
Wednesday, November 8: England v Netherlands (Pune), 2 pm
Saturday, November 11: England v Pakistan (Kolkata), 2 pm

A full preview of the 2023 World Cup appears in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly. 

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