England winning was 'written in the stars'

London: Despite going into the recently-concluded World Cup as favorites, hosts England found themselves on the verge of elimination after facing consecutive defeats against Sri Lanka and Australia in the league stages. However, the Eoin Morgan-side bounced back and won their final two league fixtures against heavyweights India and New Zealand to qualify for the knockout stage. The team then went on to win a one-sided affair against Australia in the semis, before playing a nail-biter against New Zealand in the finals, which they won on the basis of boundaries.

Jos Buttler, who played an instrumental figure in England's maiden World Cup haul, revealed that he would have stopped playing cricket if his side had failed to win the showpiece event.

"What was scaring me was if we lost, I didn't know how I'd play cricket again. This was such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a World Cup final at Lord's. It felt like destiny and I was thinking: 'If it doesn't happen, I will have no motivation to pick up a cricket bat for a very long time,'" Buttler said during an interaction with Daily Mail.

He added that he was worried about the outcome as fans expected them to lift the World Cup. However, a loss against India would have dented the hopes and Buttler stated that he would have been unable to cope up with the ridicule following their team's exit.

"Before the India game, I was struggling with coming to terms with the prospect of us getting knocked out. We'd been favourites, so highly fancied by everyone, and there was the danger that four years of playing such good cricket was going to come to nothing.

"Think about what people will say about us as a team, think about how they will call us chokers, everything else they will say. I remember seeing a comment — maybe it was the one that got Jonny Bairstow wound up — about how it would be the biggest failure because of

how much had gone into this World Cup. I was struggling with the thought of that."