Wellington: England captain Eoin Morgan insisted he was still confident of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals, despite Sunday’s “hard to take” nine-wicket loss against Sri Lanka.
The defeat leaves England on the brink of an early exit after heavy losses to New Zealand and Australia in their opening matches.
England’s final Pool A matches against Bangladesh and Afghanistan now loom as must-win clashes but Morgan said he had not considered failing to make the last eight.
“It’s not even a thought at the moment - two games to win to get us into the quarter-final,” he said.
Morgan said the fact that England set a competitive 310-run target made the Sri Lanka loss more difficult to accept than the routs against Australia and New Zealand, when they were never in the game.
“When you don’t turn up for a race like those first two games, it’s scratch. But today, when we turn up and we’re beaten in that fashion it’s harder to take.”
Morgan said England performed with the bat, particularly Joe Root who made 121, but failed with the ball to allow Sri Lanka to finish on 312-1.
“When we bowl one bad ball, every couple of overs or every over you’re going to be punished,” he said.
Morgan said England remained a quality side that needed to work on “the simple things” to click at the tournament.
“It’s not out of our reach or a million miles away,” he said. “It’s just continuing to reproduce the simple things consistently.”
Manwhile, incoming England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves has left the door open for a return to the England side for controversial former captain Kevin Pietersen and said he must return to County cricket to champion his cause.
“The first thing he has to do if he wants to get back is start playing County cricket,” Graves told the BBC.
“The selectors and the coaches are not going to pick him if he’s not playing, it’s as simple as that. At the end of the day it’s down to the selectors and coaches and what they feel is best for English cricket.
“They will make the decisions and I will support them when it comes to that decision.” When asked if he would consider surrendering existing contracts in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Pietersen was non-committal.
“To be honest it’s only happened in the last three hours and I’m not going to hassle anyone yet. I’ll have to go away and make a few decisions, speak to some people and see where my future lies,” he told Sky Sports.
