Cricket World Cup 2023: England are lacking confidence in poor start - coach Matthew Mott
- Published
Coach Matthew Mott says England are low in confidence but he will not "throw the baby out with the bathwater" after their poor start at the World Cup.
The defending champions were stunned by Afghanistan on Sunday - the second defeat in their opening three games.
Another loss to in-form South Africa on Saturday would mean they likely have to win all five of their remaining games to reach the semi-finals.
"I can guarantee you now there won't be any wholesale changes," Mott said.
"We'll always look at minor tweaks but I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater after a couple of bad performances."
England were poor with the ball against Afghanistan - conceding the most runs of any side in the tournament so far in the first powerplay - and were then lacklustre with the bat in being bowled out for 215.
They had similar issues in their opening defeat by New Zealand when they struggled to 282-9 before the Black Caps raced to the target in 36.2 overs.
"The two things that we're probably missing is the confidence - that confidence, puff your chest out, go out there and really take the game on, which this team has been renowned for over a long period of time," Mott said.
"You don't lose your ability overnight but you can lose your confidence. So that's really important.
"And then it's just our general attitude, our ability to do the little things - bowl in those partnerships when we're bleeding from one end - and then with the bat just being a little bit braver.
"We pride ourselves on putting the opposition under pressure, and on reflection we've been the reactive team in those two games, so we need to turn that round really quickly."
All-rounder Chris Woakes has been one of the players to struggle most. The seamer, the leader of England's pace attack for eight years, has conceded 95 runs in 11 overs with the new ball so far.
But Mott backed the 34-year-old to regain his form throughout the tournament.
"He's got a few credits in the bank," the Australian said.
"Yeah, he hasn't been at his best and he's the first to admit that but with players of that calibre you expect them to find a find a solution eventually."
Mott, who led England to victory in the T20 World Cup last year having taking over in the spring, also confirmed Ben Stokes is in line to play against the Proteas after missing the first three matches with a hip injury.
"We've obviously been relatively conservative with him but the medical staff were always confident that SA was a game we could target," Mott said.
"He's like the spiritual leader of the group in many ways and he certainly spoke really well after the game the other day and spoke about that need to really assert ourselves of which he's renowned for."