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According to Eoin Morgan, England’s poor performance
in the World Cup in India is unmatched in any sport, and its players are
“definitely unsettled” following crushing losses in four of their
five group matches.
Even if they lose against India on Sunday, they won’t
be formally eliminated from the tournament according to math. However, even if
England has an unusual run of form and wins all four of their remaining games,
they are unlikely to make it to the semi-finals.
Morgan, who led them to victory in 2019, said that
seeing England’s predicament over the past three weeks had been
“unsettling” and that their confidence had suffered. Additionally, he
made a suggestion that the problems were not limited to form when he said,
“I think there’s something else going on – there has to be.”
And Morgan went as far as to suggest that England’s
campaign has been among the worst in sporting history, in the context of the
widespread expectation that they would reach the semi-finals. “I’ve never
come across a sports team that has underperformed like this England team, given
the level of expectation that is on their shoulders,” he said on Sky
Sports.
“There’s something within the team that is
definitely unsettled. The method which they’re trying to use and given the
substantial nature in which they’ve lost the game[s], it is definitely called
into question, the morale within the changing room and the confidence. It must
be at its lowest that it’s been for a considerable period of time now.”
The team is “feeling the heat” and
“gutted” with their performance thus far, according to England’s
assistant coach Marcus Trescothick, who also said that he hasn’t been able to
comprehend their group’s batting inadequacies. Since Reece Topley was sidelined
due to injury against South Africa, England has lost 47 of a possible 49
wickets, and in their last two games, no batsman has reached a fifty run.
“The thing that’s baffled me the most is that
it’s been consistent across the board,” Trescothick said. “Bar the
game at Dharamsala, where we played Bangladesh, where one got a big score
[Dawid Malan’s 140] and we got a few other big scores around it, there’s just
never been the consistency of people getting the runs.
“I think they’re trying to understand it… it
[their form] has not gone, it’s just hiding in a funny place at the moment.
It’s not suddenly disappeared and they’re never going to score runs again.
They’ll rebound from this and rebound back into form at some point. But it
might be, unfortunately, disappointing that it’s going to be too late for this
competition.”