England batsman Jonny Bairstow is backing the defending champions to return to glory and also stressed that their firepower with the bat cannot be criticized despite early defeats in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023. After two defeats in their first three matches, the defending champions do. They will look to turn their World Cup campaign around when they face South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. The defending champions were stunned by Afghanistan in Delhi on Sunday – the second defeat in their first three matches.
Bairstow said England did not become a bad team overnight and despite early losses to New Zealand and Afghanistan their players remain confident they can win the World Cup. The England batsman stated that the team remains confident in their ability to string together a series of wins.
“There’s a reason why the boys won the T20 World Cup last year; there’s a reason why the boys won the 2019 World Cup, and we are the defending champions. Just because we lost a match to Afghanistan doesn’t mean we’re bad cricketers or something like that,” Bairstow told ESPNcricinfo.
“You look at [Fazalhaq] Farooqi, his record in the IPL; you look at the three spinners they have and their records. Just because they play for Afghanistan, they are no slouch. They have some of the best in the world and they have competition winners. “We lost that game, we didn’t play well enough, and we accepted that and moved on,” the right-handed batsman said.
Bairstow was asked if the England batting line-up is still capable of crushing opponents in the way it has done for the past eight years, and the right-handed batsman said: “I don’t really think it’s changed much, has it? Take a look to the strength in depth we have with our batting line-up… I don’t think the firepower can be doubted.”
“We’re just focusing on ourselves. That’s what we’re doing. We’re going to play the way we want to play, put pressure on the opposition the way we said we would try. People are allowed to do that.” to bowl or bat well. But if our mentality is good and if the way we approach the game is good, then that is the part we can control,” he added.
The England players faced widespread criticism in the television and print media following their defeat on Sunday, which the team has largely ignored.
“The group remains calm within the group. Faith and confidence is not something that is even remotely questioned. That is something you can call on when you lose a match. We lost to Sri Lanka in 2019. We lost of Pakistan in 2019. We still experienced it. There were similar things that I’m sure you guys do [the press] wrote in 2019 during the home World Cup,” Bairstow said.
“But that’s okay. That’s what you have to do. You have to write down certain things about certain members and what people do and don’t do in their free time. These are things that you fill in in the [column] centimeter and you do that. Whether it’s true, whether it’s false, whatever it is – that’s up to you to do that, right? The trust is there. It is unshakable. There is no lack of belief within this group,” the England wicketkeeper-batsman said.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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