Matthew Mott has confidently stated that he is the individual capable of guiding England towards a more promising future in white-ball cricket, despite their poor performance in defending their World Cup title.

On Thursday Sri Lanka became the fourth opponents in five to beat the holders convincingly, and more than halfway through the group stage the pre-tournament second-favourites sit above only the Netherlands in the 10-team table. Although England won the T20 World Cup in Australia last year just months after Mott’s appointment, their performances in India have been so hapless the coach’s future will inevitably be up for debate.

“After experiencing losses like this in tournaments, there is a lot of scrutiny and questions about everyone’s position,” stated Mott. “I am determined to turn things around and improve. While I acknowledge that I could have performed better, I have only been in this role for 18 months and we have both won and lost a World Cup.”

“I believe I have demonstrated my coaching abilities with this team. In previous instances, I have successfully turned things around in tournaments like this. Although there may not be much time, I remain confident in whatever the outcome may be.”

Unfortunately, it is evident that Mott has not been successful in addressing the discontent among his team following their loss to New Zealand in the first game. He is struggling to understand the cause of this issue and stated, “I am unsure. At the moment, I do not have many solutions.”

This team has many talented cricketers who are considered to be among the best in the world. However, in recent games, it appears that all of them have been struggling at the same time. It will require a lot of effort and collaboration among us to improve our performance in this tournament. Once it is over, we will need to come together and figure out how to become stronger as a team because things have not gone as expected.

The team has not been eliminated yet, and there is still a chance for them to make it to the semi-finals if they lose their upcoming game against India on Sunday. However, this would require a significant improvement in their performance and a series of unexpected results from other teams. The attitude within the team has already shifted from determination to acceptance.

“India are probably raging favourites at the moment,” Mott said. “I think that’s an opportunity to restore some pride and confidence in the group. And every opportunity we get to play together is vital now to try and find our mojo back again. It’s obviously too late for this tournament, but we’ve got to find a response.”

Mott stated that he and the team’s leader, Jos Buttler, are in strong agreement and united. However, they both must prepare for a new challenge to showcase their skills. They were chosen in close succession last year to lead a successful team under Eoin Morgan’s captaincy, but they believed that the team did not require any changes. Their strategy led to T20 triumph in Australia, but a surprisingly weak loss to Ireland hinted at future struggles. Now, the team appears to require a complete reconstruction.

The upcoming T20 World Cup, to be held in the USA and West Indies, will add another layer of complexity to the process. England originally intended to send a less experienced team for their December tour of the Caribbean, meaning that their Test players will most likely not be involved. This leaves them with just four official T20 matches before the next June.

Unfortunately, the poorly planned schedule does not allow for a new team to come together (there have been few opportunities in recent years to criticize England for playing too little cricket, but this is one of them). Mott and Buttler must make a decision quickly – either trust in a new team that will have three weeks together in December, or reunite the old team for one final tour and hope for the best.

Mott stated in Bengaluru on Thursday evening that there is no easy solution for this issue when discussing with Jos. Buttler tried twice to explain the main point of their conversation, but due to his confused state of mind, his first attempt was to mention a “missing golden egg” and his second was a “golden bullet” that would fix everything. However, it is comforting to know that the person who was once very successful is still able to turn things into gold.

Source: theguardian.com