Follow UsDefending champions England didn’t have the best start to their title defence, losing two out of their first three contests in the ongoing 50-over World Cup. While the losses in itself are shocking, the fact that their second loss came against Afghanistan made the entire world go upside down.
For some, England have become a bad team overnight, considering their losses, but for Jonny Bairstow and the rest of the England team, they are still the ‘defending champions’.
"There's a reason why the guys won the T20 World Cup last year; there's a reason why the guys won the 2019 World Cup, and we're the defending champions," Bairstow said, reported ESPNCricinfo. "Just because we've lost a game to Afghanistan doesn't make us bad cricketers or anything like that.
Bairstow opened up on the loss, stating that Afghanistan are ‘no slouches’, and insisted that several of their cricketers play actively in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and are proper match-winners.
"You look at [Fazalhaq] Farooqi, his record in the IPL; you look at the three spinners that they've got and their records. Just because they play for Afghanistan, they're no slouches. They've actually got some of the world's best in there and they've got match-winners. We lost that game, we didn't play well enough, and we've accepted that and moved on from that,” he added.
Across both their losses, a common theme has been their batting failure, but Bairstow reckons that ‘firepower’ can not be questioned.
"I don't really think much has really changed, has it? You look at the strength in depth that we have with our batting line-up… I don't think the firepower can be questioned.
England’s focus, according to Bairstow, is on themselves, and added that the Three Lions can put a truckload of pressure on the opposition. For the Three Lions, all they want is to get their mindset right.
"We're just focusing on ourselves. That's what we do. We'll go out and play the way that we're looking to play, put pressure on the opposition like we said that we'd try and do. People are allowed to bowl or bat well. But if our mindset is right and if the way in which we approach the game is right, then that's the bit that we can control."
"The group remains calm within it," Bairstow said. "Belief and confidence isn't something that's been questioned one bit. That's something that you're able to call upon when you do lose a game. We lost to Sri Lanka in 2019. We lost to Pakistan in 2019. We still went through. There were similar things that I'm sure you guys [the press] wrote in 2019 at the home World Cup.”