KOLKATA: Phil Salt called on England to puff their chests out, stand up and keep their T20 World Cup hopes alive, saying on Friday that when they bring their A-game “sides can’t live with us”.

Harry Brook’s side fell to the West Indies in Mumbai on Wednesday and now need wins over Scotland and Italy in the next three days in Kolkata to be guaranteed to reach the Super Eights from Group ‘C’.

England played their first two matches at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium and were below their exhilarating best that has seen them win 12 of their last 14 T20 Internationals.

They squeezed home by just four runs against Nepal in a last-ball thriller on Sunday and then lost by 30 runs to the West Indies to end an eight-match winning streak.

“It’s just two games where I think it’s fair to say we haven’t been at our best. Not 10 or 12 games,” said Salt.

In both matches they struggled in the middle overs, with Brook suggesting after the West Indies defeat that his side were too tentative with their batting in their 197 chase.

“The opportunities are in front of us and are there to go out and play with some personality and express yourself,” Salt told reporters at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.

“Because when we do that, sides can’t live with us. We know that much.”

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2026