‘Spiritual chief’ Stokes on course to make England XI towards South Africa

Stokes has missed England’s first three video games of the World Cup due to a hip grievance and has watched from the sidelines as his team-mates slipped to heavy losses to New Zealand and Afghanistan. Those defeats – with a victory over Bangladesh sandwiched between them – have jeopardised their semi-final prospects and they’ll seemingly want 5 wins from their remaining six league video games to be in rivalry for the knockout levels.

“So fingers crossed, he can tick off all of the issues that must be ticked off and he comes again into that facet. He’s just like the religious chief of the group in some ways, and he actually spoke very well after the sport the opposite day, and spoke about that want to actually assert ourselves.”

Buttler only addressed his players briefly after completing his media duties in the aftermath of Sunday’s defeat, instead handing over first to Mott and then to Stokes. Stokes does not hold an official leadership position in England’s limited-overs set-up but is a senior player and their Test captain.

Mott said that he did not doubt England’s effort or commitment, but told his players that they looked short on confidence and that they had fallen short in their “common perspective” with both bat and ball.

“The boys try actually laborious,” he said on Tuesday, “however the two issues that we’re in all probability lacking are the boldness – to puff your chest out, go on the market and actually take the sport on – after which it is simply our common perspective, our potential to do the little issues: bowl in partnerships after we’re bleeding from one finish… after which with the bat, simply being a bit of bit braver.

“We pride ourselves on putting the opposition under pressure, and on reflection, we’ve been the reactive team in those two games. We need to turn that around really quickly.”

Stokes had spoken to his team-mates within the aftermath of England’s defeat to Ireland finally 12 months’s T20 World Cup in Australia, after which they gained 4 consecutive video games to elevate the trophy. And he did the identical after Mott spoke on Sunday, reinforcing the coach’s message about positivity after a sequence of tame dismissals.

“Stokesy came in on the back of that and just really reinforced what was a great message – particularly someone who was sitting on the bench, and had a bit of a different lens,” Mott recalled. “Like it did in the T20 World Cup, it [losing] backs you into a corner and you have to come out.

“We know after we go into that mode and we’re not as forceful and aggressive, different groups develop from that. That was one among Stokesy’s greatest factors: we’re usually the workforce that dictates phrases and will get the opposite workforce unsettled, disrupted. And for no matter purpose, we’ve not been in a position to do this. It’s fairly clear what we have to do.”

Harry Brook has batted No. 4 for England in Stokes’ absence, but was the only batter to assert himself in Sunday’s run chase, top-scoring with 66 off 61 balls. Mott did not rule out the possibility that Stokes – who will play as a specialist batter as he managed his chronic knee injury – could replace an allrounder.

Such a move would mean England risk being light on bowling options, with Joe Root likely filling in as their sixth bowler. But it would also enable them to field a batting line-up featuring Moeen Ali or Liam Livingstone at No. 7, emboldening their top order to attack. “That’s going to be an actual key query,” Mott mentioned.

“It’s nonetheless up for debate. We’ll have some actually good, strong conversations over the subsequent 24 hours; attempt to work out what that finest stability is, not only for South Africa, however for the circumstances as effectively. Harry batted extraordinarily effectively and I believe everybody is aware of his class as a participant so it is a good drawback to have. Whatever manner we go, we’ll have a robust XI.”