How good was England's 2013 Champions Trophy side and what went wrong with it?

[Slog]

One of the periods people gloss over while discussing England historical lack of one day pedigree and their recent revival is that around 2012-14 they had assembled a very good side, from a results perspective Atleast.

England gathered some terrific scalps on the way during this period, and which included a 4-0 over Pakistan in UAE, a 4-0 over Australia and a 3-0 over India among other good results.

These results meant that they were the number one ranked ODI team in the world in 2012-13.

And the form carried on into the Champions Trophy where they steamrolled into the final.

The final turned out to be a disappointing affair where due to rain it turned into a 20 over match and they were forced to compete for an ODI trophy in a format in which they actually hadn't been doing that well.

Anyways they still did brilliantly to restrict India to 129 in 20 overs.

And then they were 110/4 after 17.2 overs. Essentially needing 20 runs off 15 balls with a bunch of wickets in hands.

However they kind of lost the plot, lost a bunch of wickets and failed to chase it down eventually losing by 5 runs.

However who knows how they would have done if it was a 50 over match where Cook, Trott, Bell and Root were more likely to make an impact.

Anyways post that tournament they seemed to have gone into a spiral and two years later put out a horror show in the World Cup. Although it had been clear from a while ago that it will be a disaster and Cook was sacked just a few weeks from the World Cup.

So how good was that 2013 side? And why did they go down so quickly from number 1 in the world to the abyss

And more importantly why does there seem to be a black hole in history regarding this. People have been talking a lot of good stuff about England's ODI revival in last two years and go on to say how they are finally taking ODIs seriously and delivering.

However they totally don't even consider this 18 month period I mentioned where officially they were the best side in the world whereas this current side isn't close to that. Is it just because mentioning this period would not sell the story well?

 

[shaz619]

I was there at the final, thoroughly enjoyed the game despite the annoying rain delays. England had it in the bag before Bopara did the chokey chokey chokey. The 20 overs definetly handicapped them but they still ran India close which goes to show you their quality. On paper the team may not seem all that but played as a unit and complimented each other very well. Trott and Anderson had a great tournament, Jadeja was unplayable; my man of the series.

 

[Hasan123]

During that period 280 was a decent score. England use to relay on Trott and Cook to bat till the 35th over and then for Butler and Morgan to let loose. Eventually it became predictable, Anderson and Broad were never good enough for odi cricket and they were exposed.

It was a good odi team for that era but would struggle in this era. Hence Bell,Broad,Anderson, Cook,and Trott being discarded.

 

[shaz619]

During that period 280 was a decent score. England use to relay on Trott and Cook to bat till the 35th over and then for Butler and Morgan to let loose. Eventually it became predictable, Anderson and Broad were never good enough for odi cricket and they were exposed.

It was a good odi team for that era but would struggle in this era. Hence Bell,Broad,Anderson, Cook,and Trott being discarded.

Even by modern standards they had a great tournament although ODI's may not have been their natural format, plus you need to respect conditions in England; it's not like that gung ho rubbish in India where every wicket is a batting paradise in the limited forms. It was a wet summer as well. And even today when England came out to bat they went at a rate of 4.5, the ball was doing a bit and conditions were overcast. Broad has bowled some magnificent ODI spells, gun bowler but they've had to invest in the future and manage the work load of bowlers effectively to ensure the use of key players at the Test level

 

[Kianig89]

Ishant Sharma's heroics or England's fishy approach