Cricket World Cup 2023: England's 2019 heroes staring at embarrassing early exit

England arrived as the king of white-ball cricket, the reigning ODI and T20 world champions with a squad containing some of the best limited-overs players the country has ever produced.

But halfway through the group stage of the Cricket World Cup and their title defence is virtually over, with a run of abject, record-setting losses heralding what many see as the beginning of the end of England’s greatest white-ball era.

How to explain a first ever loss to Afghanistan? The biggest ever defeat by runs (229) to South Africa? And, on Thursday, an eight-wicket hammering by Sri Lanka?

“I’ve no clear answer,” said Jos Buttler, England’s visibly shaken captain.

Mathematically, England are not out of the World Cup, yet it will need the team to win each of their last four group games — they have won only one of five so far — and for other results to go their way in the most spectacular way.

Matthew Mott, an Australian who is England’s white-ball coach, said he’d pretty much given up hope and the likelihood is that host nation India, unbeaten and in impressive form with bat and ball, will administer the killer blow in the teams’ meeting in Lucknow on Sunday.

The English are ninth in the World Cup standings with two points from their sole victory over Bangladesh and with only the Netherlands below them.

Maybe it's the pressure of being defending champions, maybe it's simply the highs and lows of elite sports. But England's players, collectively, have hit a run of bad form at the worst possible time.

There's been only one century in five matches (Dawid Malan against Bangladesh) and there were only two fifties in the other four games combined (Joe Root against New Zealand and Harry Brook against Afghanistan).

Mark Wood, the express pacer in the middle overs, went for more than 10 an over against New Zealand and South Africa. Strike bowler Chris Woakes completed only six of his allotted 10 overs against New Zealand and only four in England's third game, against Afghanistan, and was then dropped.

“We’ve saved our worst form for when we needed it the most,” Mott said.

Former England captain Nasser Hussain called it “the end of an era” and “a bridge too far" for some of the team's top players, and it's hard to argue.

It seems there hasn't been any succession planning since England's greatest ODI moment four years ago and others, such as the powerful South Africans, have caught up in the meantime.

England's cricket leadership put all its eggs in the ODI basket ahead of the 2019 World Cup that the country hosted, and it paid off with a first 50-over world title. The focus has since swung back to the Test team, which has had a reset under the stewardship of Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, leading to the ODI side being largely forgotten.

The four matches in the World Cup warmup series against New Zealand last month were England's first ODI games in six months and came after an intense Ashes series against Australia.

The ECB's obsession with introducing the Hundred into the English game might not have helped, either, with yet another limited-overs format clogging up the schedule.

There were few bigger head-scratchers this tournament than England's decision not just to bowl first against South Africa in the heat of Mumbai, but also dispense with its all-rounders to weaken its typically deep batting lineup — the traditional strength of the team.