Slammed by media and fans at home, England captain Eoin Morgan remains confident of his team's chances this World Cup.
© AFP
Adelaide: England captain Eoin Morgan is confident his beleaguered team are good enough to revive a faltering World Cup campaign, saying they are under no pressure despite facing two must-win games.
Morgan's side, who have just one win in four Pool A matches, must defeat both Bangladesh in Adelaide on Monday and minnows Afghanistan in Sydney on March 13 to remain in contention for a quarter-final place
But even that may not be enough if Bangladesh, who have five points to England's two, upset co-hosts New Zealand in Hamilton on March 13 to squeak through to the last eight.
Morgan rubbished suggestions England had not been ruthless -- or nasty -- enough and insisted the hurdles in front of them can be cleared if they play good cricket.
"When a side loses, a thousand theories come up so the best thing for us moving forward is to concentrate on what we can do," Morgan said Saturday.
"If we start winning games, being nasty or not nasty does not matter. We need to be ourselves. The answers are within us.
"We have to play our style of cricket. We have to be ruthless enough to do the simple things consistently well. We have not done that, that's why we have struggled."
- 'Quite relaxed' -
England's lone win has been against minnows Scotland, but their most embarrassing moment came last Sunday when Sri Lanka chased down what seemed a reasonably challenging target of 310 with nine wickets and 16 deliveries to spare.
Morgan said England had moved on from that loss and looked forward to their two remaining group games.
"The guys are quite relaxed," he said. "The week's break has given us time to reflect and analyse what happened during the Sri Lanka game.
"There were a few positives in that game too. Scoring 300 was one. Joe Root's century was outstanding and we were brilliant in the last 10 to 12 overs with the bat," the former Ireland batsman added.
"But our bowling was a bit of a concern. We bowled some bad balls and were less attacking with the ball then we usually would have been.
England have lost only two of their 15 one-day internationals against Bangladesh, but Morgan said he did not expect an easy game.
"We certainly are not taking a win for granted," he said. "They have come a long way in the last 10 years and we have played a lot against them. But a lot of focus going forward is going to be on us.
"If we play well, I have every confidence we can win this game. The illusion of making it a bigger game than it is, is probably the wrong thing to do."
Morgan refused to confirm speculation that hard-hitting batsman Alex Hales will replace the struggling Gary Ballance to lend solidity to the top order.
"There is not very much to choose between Gary and Hales," he said. "A lot of time a player can be twice the player he is when he is not playing, particularly when someone is not doing well.
"It's a big decision to change anyone in the side, so it won't be made quickly."
Morgan said he expected his two pace spearheads, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, to come good after managing just four wickets between them in four matches.
"They are exceptional bowlers but in tandem they have not been consistent enough to put the ball in the right areas," he said. "The guys are training really, really hard to do it.
"But they have not managed to take wickets early enough. They are not at their best at the moment."
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