by: Atika Mehboob TN Sport Pakistan:
England have endured the awful World Cup campaign so far, having won only one game out of their six outings.
The defending champions were one of the top sides to lead in this World Cup but thus far they have shown woeful and below-par performances.
Ahead of the Australia clash, the all-rounder Ben Stokes admitted that his side has shown below-average performances so far and lamented that “nothing’s worked” for them.
“Everything we’ve tried throughout this World Cup, through trying to put pressure back onto the opposition in a way in which we know, or trying to soak up the pressure in a different way, which we know we’ve done before and been successful with, it’s just not worked.”
If England lose to their arch-rivals Australia then they will be officially eliminated from the semi-finalists race.
Stokes, however, accepted that the clash with Australia does excite the team and the cricketing fraternity altogether.
England will meet Australia on Saturday at Ahmedabad, and if Australia successfully claims the two given points this will increase their chances to make it into the playoffs stage.
After facing Australia, the defending champions still have to play the Netherland in Pune on November 8 and Pakistan at Kolkata on November 11.
“We’ve had a disastrous World Cup and there’s no point sugarcoating that because it’s the truth. But we know these last three games, for us, we’ve got a lot to play for,” said Stokes.
