When was the last time England was at bottom of a World Cup table?
Defending champions England are at the bottom of the 2023 World Cup points table. They reached the shocking position after the previous last-placed team, Afghanistan, thumped Pakistan by eight wickets on Monday and lifted themselves from ninth place to sixth with two wins in five matches.
England's three defeats in four matches - against New Zealand, Afghanistan, and South Africa - left them with an abysmal net run rate of -1.248. All other teams that have just one win each so far in the tournament are better than them in that metric.
Seeing the heights they achieved between 2018-2021, it's almost impossible to believe that England, the epitome of the 'new age' and 'modern' ODI revolution, with aggression, extensive data analysis, and courageous tactics would be here.
The last time such a thing happened was 21 World Cup matches ago on February 20, 2015, in what was a similarly embarrassing phase.
In the 2015 World Cup in Australia, England lost both of their first two matches against Australia and New Zealand to sit at the bottom of the Pool A points table.
They lost by 111 runs to Australia, courtesy of a 135 (128) and a Mitchell Marsh five-wicket haul. Although that was a massive margin for a defeat, what followed was simple carnage. Six days later, New Zealand bowled them out for 123 runs and chased it down in less than 13 overs to end the match within a few hours.
The eight-wicket bashing (with 226 balls remaining) was and still remains the biggest defeat in England's history. Tim Southee set it up with a jaw-dropping seven-wicket haul in the first innings in a masterful show of swing and variations. He was helped by a fielding set-up that wouldn't have dropped hot coal that day.
England had nothing to give in the second innings but opposition captain Brendon McCullum, with no idea of what the word 'Bazball' means, smashed a World Cup record 18-ball fifty, another record that still holds. His 77 (25) did most of the job and his younger teammates pushed the ball around to finish things off.
Both Afghanistan and Scotland had lost their opening matches by big margins but two such defeats meant that England's net run rate was lower. It was the worst in either Pool i.e. had it been a joint 14-team World Cup, they'd still been last.
What happened when England was at the bottom of the points table the last time?
The team stayed at the bottom of the pool for three more days until they faced Scotland. They won easily with a margin of 111 runs. Scotland couldn't hack a win in their remaining matches so remained at the bottom from then.
But this was just a false comeback. The Eoin Morgan-led side lost to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh back-to-back. They eventually defeated Afghanistan in their last league match to finish fifth in the points table.
It's almost like a full circle for the English - from last, to first, and now last again. After the 2015 World Cup, Morgan famously revolutionized the team, making them arguably the most feared ODI side in world cricket.
Although the 2019 World Cup win was dodgy, no one could say that they didn't deserve to be in the final. Now, there's again a sense of panic and helplessness.
This time they don't even have any tangible team weaknesses - just a bit of shortcomings in every aspect from pre-tournament planning to tactics. If they continue to fall, recovering from here might be harder than in 2015.