Follow UsAfter the highs of 2019, England were expected to do well in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, but the domestic structure and lack of enough ODIs in the lead-up to the event cost them big time. Nowhere close to their best, England have found themselves in the ninth position in the 10-team event.
So lackadaisical was their performance against Sri Lanka at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium that they couldn’t even post 200 runs at one of the most batting-friendly venues in the World Cup. Jos Buttler didn't try to hide the underperformance and added that it was not what they had expected from them while stating that the decision regarding his captaincy should be taken by the higher management. England coach Matthew Mott has come out in support of his skipper, who he added, is hurting by the team’s performance.
"Jos and I are incredibly aligned and united," Mott said ahead of the India clash in Lucknow. "Rob Key has been an amazing support to us [but] when you lose tournaments like this, everyone's under scrutiny; everyone's place will be questioned.
"I'm fully determined that we can turn this around. I've got great faith in Jos: he's hurting now, and he'll be feeling like there's a lot on him. I certainly feel like I could have done things a lot better. But I've been in the job for 18 months: we've won a World Cup and lost a World Cup. I think I've shown the capability that I can coach this team."
While England have secured just one win from five games, their hope to make it to the semi-final lies in the hands of other mathematical conditions going their way. However, with the top four teams slowly moving away from the chasing pack with one convincing win after another, the gulf is becoming wide. While a semi spot is a long shot, Mott stated that the team want to restore the pride by pulling the results back on their way, and their process would start from the match against India.
"India are probably raging favourites at the moment," Mott said. "That's an opportunity to restore some pride and confidence in the group, and every opportunity we get to play together is vital now to try and find our mojo again.
"We'll just try and keep picking our best side for the conditions - as we've tried to do all the way throughout. What we need to get our heads around is restoring pride… that is our first priority at the moment: to make sure we come out and give India a good scrap, and hopefully perform a lot better than we have,” the former Australian Women’s team coach added.