ICC World Cup 2023 – Eoin Morgan says England flop is unprecedented

Eoin Morgan has suggested that England’s poor performance at the World Cup in India is unmatched across the sport and that their players are “out of order” after heavy defeats in four of their five group games.

England are not mathematically eliminated from the tournament – even defeat in Lucknow on Sunday would not officially knock them out – but they will not qualify for the semi-finals even if they put together an unlikely run of form and win it all the four of them. remaining fixtures.

Morgan, who captained them to the title in 2019, said it was “disturbing” to see the state of England in the last three weeks and that their confidence had been lost. He also suggested broader issues than the simple form, saying: “I think something else is going on – there has to be.”

And Morgan suggested England’s campaign was one of the worst in the history of the game, in the context of widespread expectation they would reach the semi-finals. “I’ve never seen a team in sports do as poorly as this England team, because of the level of expectation that’s on their shoulders,” he told Sky Sports.

“There is something within the team that is definitely not resolved. The method they are trying to use and given the great attitude they lost the game.[s], it is definitely questioned, the morale inside a room and the trust. It should be the lowest it’s been in a long time now. “

Morgan said it was “an unacceptable excuse” to simply say the players were out of form at the same time. “I think something else is going on — there has to be,” he said. “If you look at the strength in depth, especially with the bat, England are as good on paper as any side in this tournament, but they haven’t fired.

“They made the wrong choice: they really struggled to find a balanced side and one that was effective enough to compete, never mind win this tournament. This is an incredible challenge for Jos and his team.. . they need to regain confidence in the method they used for a long time that made them double world champions.”

Marcus Trescothick, England’s assistant coach, said the squad was “feeling the heat” and was “angry” about their results so far, and admitted he could not get his head around their collective failures with the bat. England have lost 47 of a possible 49 wickets (Reece Topley was unhurt against South Africa) and no batter has made an individual 50 in their last two matches.

“The thing that baffles me the most is that it’s consistent across the board,” Trescothick said. “Bar the Dharamsala game, where we played Bangladesh, where one got a big score [Dawid Malan’s 140] and we’ve got some great scores around it, there’s never been consistency in people getting the run.

“I think they’re trying to understand this… this [their form] not yet, just hiding in a funny place for now. It didn’t suddenly disappear and they wouldn’t score again. They will rebound from this and return to form at some point. But perhaps, unfortunately, it is disappointingly too late for this competition. “

Sunday’s match in Lucknow will be played on a used pitch, the same one used for South Africa’s win over Australia two weeks ago.

“The timing really couldn’t be worse,” Morgan said. “Since India are not favorites to win this tournament on home soil, that challenge will be bigger now than when you are playing on a new pitch.

“England have to play with what’s in front of them,” he added. “For most of this tournament, I think they brought other things or looked outside the camp, as opposed to their own performance. .”