Jonny Bairstow confident of England’s strong comeback in World Cup

Before the ODI World Cup 2023 commenced, England and India were being considered as the favourites to go the distance. The ‘Men in Blue’ have been on a roll, registering three consecutive wins, but the defending champions have a solitary victory in their first three.

England received a hammering against New Zealand in their first game before getting off the mark against Bangladesh. However, in their most recent game against Afghanistan, England endured a monumental upset, losing by 69 runs. They have to string together a few wins now to stay in contention for a semi-final berth.

Opening batter Jonny Bairstow said that the players have not become bad just because they lost to Afghanistan in the ongoing ODI World Cup. He also praised the Afghan cricketers and noted that they are no pushovers.

“There’s a reason why the guys won the T20 World Cup last year; there’s a reason why the guys won the 2019 World Cup, and we’re the defending champions. Just because we’ve lost a game to Afghanistan doesn’t make us bad cricketers or anything like that,” Bairstow was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“You look at [Fazalhaq] Farooqi, his record in the IPL; you look at the three spinners that they’ve got and their records. Just because they play for Afghanistan, they’re no slouches. They’ve actually got some of the world’s best in there and they’ve got match-winners. We lost that game, we didn’t play well enough, and we’ve accepted that and moved on from that,” he added.

I don’t think England’s batting firepower can be questioned: Jonny Bairstow

The experienced wicketkeeper-batter was asked if England’s batting still has the ability to dominate bowling attacks like they used to in previous years. Bairstow said that nothing much has changed with their ability and there is no room for questioning the firepower.

“I don’t really think much has really changed, has it? You look at the strength in depth that we have with our batting line-up… I don’t think the firepower can be questioned,” Bairstow said.

England will square off against South Africa in their next game on Saturday, October 21 in Mumbai.