Virender Sehwag was astounded by the performance of the English cricket team against New Zealand in the ODI WC 2023 opener. Virender Sehwag highlighted the fact that England’s NRR has taken a bad hit of -2.149 and it will require a helluva of effort to make a comeback in the tournament.
England got a reality check as chasing down 283 runs with more than 13 runs left says that the team wasn’t ready for the Kiwi challenge. The absence of Ben Stokes did hurt the team as the flamboyant all-rounder had a niggle which ruled him out of the opening clash
England will need to beat another team by a big margin to make it to Semi Finals- Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag was having an interaction with Cricbuzz. Virender Sehwag said that it looks unlikely that England will make it to the Semi Finalists after the thrashing they got against New Zealand in the ODI WC 2023 opener. Virender Sehwag heaped praise on New Zealand’s batters and said that the wicket didn’t changed but the duo of Conway & Ravindra batted better.
“I had kept England in my top four, but I think I need to change my prediction now. Yes, they can lose two matches and still make it to the semi-finals. However, their net run rate has taken a massive hit. So, they will need to beat another team by a big margin,” said Virender Sehwag.
“The wicket didn’t change; New Zealand just batted better. The England batters’ shot selection was poor. New Zealand, on the other hand, lost just one wicket. The two batters remained till the end because their shot selection was very good. That made a big difference. I’d say that we have already seen one upset in this World Cup, and they also took revenge for the 2019 World Cup final,” he added.
Poor performance from England
It won’t be wrong to say that the Jos Buttler led side missed the services of Jofra Archer (*part of the English setup as a travelling reserve). The right arm speedster not only has got express pace but can fox the batter with his impeccable line & length.
England will have to pull their socks up and produce a better performance against Bangladesh on 10th October at Dharamsala. Bangladesh won’t be an easy opponent means as we witnessed that how the Bangladeshi Tigers won the contest in 2011 ODI WC as we can expect a similar contest.