Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag said that England have always been a mediocre team except their 2019 ODI World Cup win at home. Sehwag’s statement comes after the defending champions were humiliated by Sri Lanka in an eight-wicket loss on October 26 in Bengaluru during the ODI World Cup 2023. 

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With England staring at an early exit in the ongoing tournament, Sehwag pointed out that England have made it to the last-four in an ODI World Cup only once out of last eight times. The former India cricketer also gave the reason for this, saying ‘too much chopping and changing’ and not having a steady side is what cost them.

England, after the early exit in 2015 World Cup, went through a change and dominated the world cricket in limited-overs, winning the 2019 ODI World Cup as well as 2022 T20I World Cup. They also went through a change in leadership in Tests after suffering some big losses and came out flying.

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Sehwag, however, added that England aren’t as excited in ODIs as they are in Tests and this wrong thinking also put them in the situation they currently are in. The former India opener had shared the views on his official social media handle X. Have a look at the post below:

The loss against Sri Lanka was England’s fourth in five games, leaving them second-last on the points table, just above Netherlands. England have previously lost to New Zealand in tournament opener before taking a thrashing from Afghanistan and South Africa as well. 

Looking at the current picture, England are unlikely to make it to the semis and their white-ball coach Matthew Mott agrees to the same.

“Mathematically, we’d have to have a lot of things go our way,” Mott told Sky Sports after the game. “As I said leading up today, we could control it from there, but it certainly hasn’t done our net run-rate any help at all and, depending on others,” he added.

England next play against hosts India on October 29 in Lucknow.

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