Former England captain Michael Vaughan was left frustrated by England’s poor display against Sri Lanka on a batting paradise of a wicket at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. England got bowled out for 156 from 33.2 overs, the lowest total by a team after getting all-out at the venue. Vaughan has called Jos Buttler-led England’s ongoing campaign one of the worst in World Cup history.
After England batters surrendered to Sri Lanka, Vaughan took to his X account, formerly known as Twitter to express his views: “This is turning out to be one of the worst World Cup campaigns in English cricket history .. btw .. & we have had some stinkers ..”
Earlier, Buttler won the toss and opted to bat first. England got off to a blazing start with Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan hitting boundaries. The partnership was broken by veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews. Then Joe Root got run out for a single-digit score, thanks to Mathews' brilliance. Bairstow could not convert his start into a big score either. He scored 30 runs from 31 balls.
After the top-order was sent packing, Ben Stokes saw wickets fall on the other end while he batted with caution. Stokes started to run out of partners. Stokes missed his half-century as well. He scored 43 runs from 73 balls. England couldn't come close to playing the full 50 overs.
Former England captain Nasser Hussain was critical of England's batting performance as well. In a conversation with Sky Sports, he said, "The problem is with England, I look at their batters and I honestly can't say one of them is in nick at the moment."
"Maybe occupy the crease for a while and form will come."
"There's no rhythm and no fluency to their batting and this is the gun line-up they've had for some time now."
England’s only win of World Cup 2023 so far came against Bangladesh in Dharamsala where they won the match by 137 runs. They were completely outclassed by New Zealand in the tournament opener. Against Afghanistan, their batting collapsed in Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. At the same venue, Australia and South Africa went ballistic to post mammoth totals. On another batting paradise of a wicket at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, they were nowhere near the run chase and lost by a record margin of 229 runs.
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