England was the country that introduced and popularized the sport of cricket to the world. The first recorded instance of a team claiming to represent was on July 9, 1739, when an 'All-England' team consisting of 11 men from any part of England except Kent, played against 'the Unconquerable County' of Kent and lost by a margin of 'very few notches' or runs.
But since then, a lot has. They are the current ODI World Champions with a very narrow win on boundaries in the final in 2019 against New Zealand and have also won the T20 World Cup once, way back in 2010. And with a new-look side coming back to an ICC tournament — the T20 World Cup in Australia — we take a look at a brief biography of the team and their history in T20I cricket.
Brief history
Almost all cricket fans know that England was among the first-ever international teams in the sport. While diving into their history would be more feasible in a video documentary format, it is important to note that England was involved in many firsts of the sport.
England and Australia were the first teams to play a Test match, from March 15–19 in 1877, and the two teams also played the first-ever ODI match, on January 5, 1971. Their first T20I was played on 13 June 2005, once more against Australia. Meanwhile, the first-ever T20I match was held on August 5, 2004, between the England and New Zealand women's teams, with New Zealand winning by nine runs.
The aforementioned two countries, along with South Africa which was under British rule, formed the Imperial Cricket Conference on June 15, 1909. This organization was the predecessor to the International Cricket Council (ICC).And while the UK had separate cricket boards for the five countries, all had separate cricket boards but Scotland and Ireland have since become independent members of the ICC. Hence, the country's board is called the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
Introduction of T20 cricket
Given their historical status in relation to cricket, it is no surprise that England has had a hand in all three formats of the game. Back in 2003, the ECB introduced the shortest format of the game – Twenty-20 for inter-county competitions.
This was done to appeal to the younger generations with exciting cricket in a short amount of time. In June 2005, England men’s team played their first T20I game against Australia, with the Three Lions winning by 100 runs. But it was not till 2010 that the side won their first-ever ICC trophy, almost a century after founding the cricket council.
Under the astute captaincy of Paul Collingwood, England defeated Australia in the final of the marquee event. Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad bowling tight lengths to restrict Australia to just 147. Then the England batters, led by Craig Kieswetter's 63 runs from 49 balls and Kevin Pietersen's 47 off 31 balls, became instrumental in the successful run chase. Pietersen was the Player of the Series for his 248 runs in the competition.
Fast-forward to six years later and England could have won the trophy for a second time, becoming the only team to win the trophy twice! But this laurel went to the 2012 champions West Indies instead, because of the heroics of Carlos Braithwaite, who smashed Ben Stokes (who was defending 19 runs in the final over of the match) for four sixes.
Overall, England has played 163 T20I matches. Out of these, they have won 85, lost 71, tied two and five games were abandoned. The side has been most successful against Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and South Africa with a winning ratio of 54.43%.
England squad for T20 World Cup:
Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Alex Hales, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, and Mark Wood
