Fallen White-Ball Kings England In Search Of Champions Trophy Revival

England may have been the reigning world champions in both 50-over and T20 cricket as recently as two years ago, but they head into the Champions Trophy facing an uphill struggle to reach the semi-finals. They suffered seven defeats in eight white-ball games during their preceding tour of India, culminating in a crushing 142-run loss in the third one-day international in Ahmedabad. That result condemned England to a 3-0 series whitewash, after their 4-1 reverse in the T20s.

Accusations of laziness from India great Ravi Shastri and ex-England batsman Kevin Pietersen may be unfair, but the side have now lost more ODIs since their 2019 World Cup triumph than they have won -- 32 to 29, with 10 defeats in their last 14.

In England's favour is that the pitches in Pakistan, where they face Australia in their Champions Trophy opener in Lahore on Saturday, are set to be more to the liking of both their batsmen and fast bowlers than the spin-friendly surfaces in India.

To reach the last four of the eight-team Champions Trophy ODI tournament, Jos Buttler's men must finish in the top two of a group that also contains Afghanistan and South Africa -- both of whom beat England during their woeful title defence in the 2023 World Cup in India.

The recent India campaign was England's first since Test coach Brendon McCullum also took charge of the white-ball teams.

Former New Zealand captain McCullum enjoyed initial success as England's red-ball boss, although the team have since failed to qualify for the World Test Championship final at Lord's in June.

'Always optimistic'

Many of the criticisms levelled against England's Test cricket under McCullum have now been applied to the limited-overs teams.

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