Over 80,000 people turned up that day. One of the two teams would join, the West Indies, to become two-time champions of the T20 World Cup. Sam Curran and Ben Stokes, two champion all-rounders, ensured that, that would be team would be England.
While Curran starred with his 3 wickets, Stokes yet again played a heroic knock in a final. His unbeaten fifty steered England’s run-chase of 138.
The victory in the final meant that England became the first team to simultaneously hold the ODI World Cup and the T20 World Cup trophy. The triumph inspired a book titled “White Hot: The Inside Story of England Cricket Double World Champion” penned by English cricket journalist Matt Roller.
Pakistan were at their unpredictable best in the tournament. They lost their tournament opener against India and were then defeated by Zimbabwe. They were staring at an early exit. That was when they put together a string of victories against the Netherlands, South Africa, Bangladesh and New Zealand to qualify for the finals.
England and Pakistan competed hard in the final. But little did the world knew that match would be the high-point for the two teams, at least for the next three ICC white-ball tournaments.
Both England and Pakistan have been on a decline in white-ball cricket. Their performance in the next three ICC white-ball championships, since the 2022 T20 World Cup, have been sub-par.
In the 2023 ODI World Cup, England surrendered their ODI crown. The team led by Jos Buttler could muster only three wins from the nine group games. Pakistan were only slightly better. They won four games.
There was one commonality in the two team’s campaign. Both were defeated by Afghanistan. Afghans, in-fact, were the story of that World Cup as they had also managed to pull-off a win over Sri Lanka. Before facing Australia they had taken down three World Champions. At Wankhede they had Australia on the mat. Had it not been for Glenn Maxwell’s once in a lifetime effort, Afghanistan could have won against Australia too and the script of the World Cup could have been vastly different.
Last year in the Caribbean, Afghanistan reminded the world that their victories in India were no one-off thing. This time in the T20 World Cup, the Afghans upstaged Australia and New Zealand and qualified for the semi-finals. Their fairy tail rain run was halted by South Africa.
Afghanistan’s juggernaut in the ICC events continued for a third straight year. Yet again their victims were England as Afghanistan pulled off a eight-run in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy.
“I think certainly what happened in the World Cup, T20 World Cup, and I say this to the players as well, that Afghanistan’s never going to be taken lightly ever again,” said Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan’s head-coach after the win. Interestingly Trott has represented England during his playing days.
Pakistan and England have drawn fair bit of criticism for the decline in their performance and rightly so.
“I think a B team (from India) certainly (can give Pakistan a run for their money). C team, I am not too sure. But a B team will be very, very hard to beat for Pakistan in their current form,” said Sunil Gavaskar after Pakistan’s loss to India.
“England have had three bad (ICC events) in a row now, the disastrous 50-over World Cup in India, a poor T20 World Cup in the Caribbean – where they made the semis but they didn’t beat anybody of note though it – and now here, and their cricket is way below the standards which they set themselves.. Sometimes you just have to say it’s not working.” said former England skipper Michael Atherton after England bowed out of the Champions Trophy.
Neither England, nor Pakistan have that oomph factor about them anymore. Instead it is the Afghan players that bring the much-needed excitement to the ICC tournaments.
Rashid Khan had attained a super status much before Afghanistan started upsetting the “giants” of the game. Now the likes of Ibrahim Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Noor Ahmad and Fazalhaq Farooqi are becoming familiar names in cricketing corridors. A few of them are bound to attain the cult status that Rashid enjoys!
There is still some gap between the likes of England and Pakistan and Afghanistan. But is things remain as is then surely Afghanistan can take up their spots, at least in white-ball cricket!
