New Delhi: Former England cricketer Michael Atherton on Friday said that Jos Buttler’s side should aim to qualify for the Champions Trophy as its chances of reaching the semifinals of the ODI World Cup 2023 are bleak.
England are currently placed at the bottom of the league table with just one win from 6 games and are facing the threat of failing to qualify for Champions Trophy 2025. The top eight teams of the ICC World Cup 2023 will qualify for the Champions Trophy 2025, with host Pakistan.
Atherton feels that England should look to win all the remaining matches and reach the top 8 in the World Cup table so that they can play in the 2025 tournament.
“England have been a great side for a long time in ODI cricket. And none of us has really been able to come up with an explanation of why have things not gone according to plan.
“One of the things could be that England were in a similar state with their Test cricket 18 months ago and then with Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum coming in, the full focus was on their Bazball project and the team just did not play enough ODIs and when they did play it, they did not play with their first choice team in the build-up to the World Cup 2023,” said Atherton while speaking to AB de Villiers on his YouTube channel.
“The key thing for England is to get into the top 7 or 8 and qualify for the Champions Trophy in 2025. And if they don’t qualify for that, that will be quite an outcome,” he added.
England will take on Australia at Ahmedabad, the Netherlands at Pune, and Pakistan at Kolkata in their final three group-stage matches.
–IANS
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