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When a team is defending their title, there are so many expectations from their fans. There are only two teams who have defended their title in the next ODI World Cup, which was the West Indies(1975 and 1979) and Australia(1999, 2003, 2007). Sometimes teams end up losing in knock outs such as India in 2015 and Australia in 2011 etc, but if a defending team doesn’t even qualify for the knockouts that sends the world cricket in shock.
England was defending their title this year in India and they were also the strong contenders to the world cup but as the world cups started it has turned out to be a worst nightmare for this champion team. Except England this year there are two more teams with whom this has happened in history. In this article I am going to remember those two world cups where defending champions ended up their journey into the group[ stage.
Australia, 1992 ODI World Cup
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Five time world champions Australia has also faced a lot of criticism in 1992 ODI World cup when as defending champions they failed to qualify in knockouts. Australia won their first Title in 1987 by beating England in the final under the captain of Allan Border and everyone thought that now Australia can’t be beaten by any team at any stage but then in 1992 world cup with the same captain Australia failed to complete the requirements to reach the knockout stage of that world cup. In 92 Australia didn’t start well, they lost their first two games in front of New Zealand and South Africa. In the next six games Australia managed to grab only four and lost another two games against Pakistan and England. Winning 4 out of eight stopped them at eight points and the fourth team Pakistan which has 9 points became the last team to qualify.
David Boon(368 runs) and Michael Whitney(12 wickets) were the top performers for Australia in that world cup. Australia later became the first team in the world to win three consecutive titles.
Sri Lanka, 1999 ODI World Cup
Sri Lanka was coming to England as the defending champions and there were lot’s of expectations from this world champion team. This team has Sri Lanka’s all time great players like Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas etc, led by the legendary captain Arjuna Ranatunga. Sri Lankan was looking so strong but as soon as this journey started nothing went in favor of the Sri Lankan team, they lost their first game against England and then South Africa. Sri Lanka has only won two games against Zimbabwe and Kenya but that wasn’t enough for them to qualify to the knockouts. World champion team has been ruled out of that World Cup in the group stage and then never ever won another one. They reached the finals in 2007 and 2011 but first Australia and then India didn’t let them have the party. Marvan Atapattu(139 runs in 5 games) and Wickramasinghe(9 wickets in 5 games) were the top performers from the Sri Lankan team.
England, 2023 ODI World Cup
After winning the 2019 World Cup at home England instantly became the strongest ODI team in the world. Before coming to India England was everyone’s favorite contender to defend their title again this year. Just before the World cup player of the tournament from 2019 Ben Stokes has been recalled from his retirement to attend the tournament as a team member. everything was going in their way until they met the runner ups from the last world cup in their first game. England lost their first game against New Zealand and then tried to regain the way back by beating Bangladesh in their second game but the real struggle of this world champion team started after that. England has lost four consecutive games which caused enough damage. Now the English team can’t qualify for the knockouts and now there is another big poser for England to qualify for the champions trophy 2025. This world cup has been a nightmare for this team and now England will try to enjoy every game of this world and this team could destroy anyone’s game.
Also read: ODI World Cup: Which Country Has Reached The Finals But Never Won?
