England can create a dynasty by retaining Cricket World Cup

The word 'dynasty', with its Ancient Greek origins and more recent American associations, is rarely associated with cricket. But as England prepare to start their World Cup defence tomorrow, looking to claim the second successive 50-over title, we can be thankful for the shorthand to describe a period of powerful, dominant rule.

For if Jos Buttler's side fly home next month with the World Cup still in their possession, they will be worthy of the billing. "Everyone dreams of going back-to-back," said Jonny Bairstow last month, the opening batter doing himself a rare disservice, given only seven other players at this tournament have the right to sleep among such thoughts.

In the World Cup's history, only two teams have won successive titles, the two that, were 100 fans surveyed on what constitutes a cricketing dynasty, would come out top of the Family Fortunes ticker. True, the West Indies side that triumphed in the first two tournaments in the 1970s, and then the Australia that won three in a row from 1999, could claim concurrent spells of Test dominance as the crux of their legacy.

But Buttler's team are already the first to hold both the men's T20 and ODI world titles at once, and with three formats (for now) in play, blanket supremacy feels a lofty bar. Indeed, India, the world No1 in all of them, are without a global trophy in 12 years.

Another triumph in the sport's most prestigious tournament would take this group into a realm untouched among the nation's three most popular sports: no England football or rugby team, male or female, has ever won and then defended a World Cup.

That is not without good reason, of course, and that this is a squad looking to cap, rather than create, its legacy tells that it is by definition one beyond its prime.

India, on home soil, are rightful favourites, in superb form with a ferociously talented side and also best-practised, having played more ODIs since the last World Cup than any other team at this. Australia, South Africa, Pakistan and New Zealand all have genuine claims, too.

For all the admission, though, that this is not the same England that pushed the envelope so far between the last two World Cups, it is not as if anyone else has nicked it and charged off since.

It is not only England who appear a lesser side than that which reached the 2019 final, though as with the defending champions, the question surrounding back-to-back runners-up in New Zealand is the extent to which they have declined. Heading into tomorrow's opener, they are not even the force that they could become by the tournament's end, with captain and star batter Kane Williamson not yet ready for World Cup action having performed a minor miracle in recovering from an ACL injury at the IPL to be back in India at all.

A 3-1 series defeat in England last month did not come without positives, most notably in the striking of Devon Conway, Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips (which might have come in handy in, say, a final settled on boundary count), as well as the return to the international set-up of franchise freelancer Trent Boult, who has been swinging the new-ball miles in warm-ups.

The rest of the Black Caps seamers, though, took plenty of punishment in that series from a batting line-up that, despite concerns over its lynchpin Joe Root's lack of rhythm, remains England's strong suit, with Ben Stokes back (should he survive an injury scare) and Dawid Malan in seemingly flawless one-day form.

It is in the bowling ranks that Buttler's side is notably weakened from its champion incarnation, Jofra Archer absent until the latter part of the tournament and Liam Plunkett not fully replaced.

Adil Rashid and Mark Wood have carried niggles into the build-up, while Reece Topley and Chris Woakes are superb new-ball exponents but surely cannot get through a full allocation of (potentially) 11 matches unchanged, as Woakes did four years ago. The expectation is that two post-2019ers in Sam Curran and Gus Atkinson could play significant roles.