LUCKNOW: Defending champions England are feeling the heat of a lacklustre World Cup campaign but assistant coach Marcus Trescothick insisted on Saturday that they haven’t “lost faith” in the under-pressure 50-over format.

England face unbeaten hosts India in Lucknow on Sunday, coming into the contest with four defeats from five matches to languish ninth in the 10-team table and with their hopes of making the semi-finals almost over.

“We’re all feeling the heat. But what can you do? We prepared the same, we’ve done things very similar to what you’d expect,” Trescothick told reporters.

“Every practice we go through we’re coming out the other side thinking we’re in a good place and feeling quite right. It’s just not quite worked then wh­e­n we go into the games.”

Critics have targeted England’s approach to the 50-over format after they won the crown in 2019.

They played just 13 ODI matches in the build-up to their title defence.

“Forgive me, I don’t want to be blunt here, but we haven’t lost faith in what it is,” said Trescothick.

“We love playing any form of cricket, any form of the game that we play. And we were desperate to come here and try and win back-to-back 50 over competitions.”

Meanwhile, Indian batter KL Rahul said vice-captain Hardik Pandya will miss the England match as he continues to recover from a left ankle injury so the hosts may stick with his replacement Suryakumar Yadav.

“Hardik has been a very important member of the team .. so not having him is also a bit of a miss for the team,” Rahul told reporters. “Surya will probably get his chance and we know what he can do. So our confidence is in Surya till Hardik comes back.”

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2023