England spinner Adil Rashid confident of defending T20 World Cup title

London: England leg-spinner Adil Rashid looks past ‘poor run’ at Cricket World Cup and shifts focus to winning the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup trophy twice in a row.

Rashid is confident that their disappointing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 campaign will not play on the team's mind ahead of the T20 World Cup that is set to take place in the USA and West Indies in June this year.

"The 50 overs was a completely different format," Rashid said, speaking at ECB's launch of a national tape-ball competition.

England finished their 2023 Cricket World Cup campaign in seventh position with three wins and six losses – including upsets against Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Rashid emphasised that they shouldn't overanalyse the effects of the previous tournament as they are still the T20 World Champions, an ICC report said.

"We had a poor run or whatever. It is what it is. We didn't have the best tournament. We didn't play well: bat, ball, as a team, as a unit - everything. But I think this is a completely different format where currently we're world champions at that," he said.

"We're confident. We've got the team, we've got the mindset, we've got the players, we've got the experience. If we go out there having the same belief, I think we'll - hopefully - go all the way,"

Rashid said.

"We don't look at it as 'we had a bad World Cup' because that's a completely different format. It's 50-over, that's not T20. We try not to mix both together,” added Rashid.

England’s T20 World Cup 2022 campaign saw them emerge victorious with only one loss in the tournament that came shockingly against Ireland. In the semi-final, they defeated India by 10 wickets when they chased down 169 in 16 overs and took a comfortable win in the final against Pakistan with an over to spare while chasing 138.

"You have the mindset of champions… we are not thinking of what's gone on in the past; not thinking about a poor World Cup or people not being in form because things change very quickly when you go into a tournament or the first game comes," Rashid said.

"Prior to that, we may not be playing well but as soon as the tournament comes, people can turn up, teams can turn up and just switch on and win the World Cup," he said.

"If you have too much planning with T20 cricket then you're limiting yourself to, maybe, 180 or 170. But if you actually play with freedom, you can get to 250, 300," Rashid added.

England will play a four-match T20I series against Pakistan at the end of May at home as a part of their preparation for the marquee tournament. They play their first match on June 4, against Scotland.