“Bloody hell. That’s pretty rich.” - Jonny Bairstow on former England players’ criticism of the current team.
Sunday Times
TELFORD VICE in Chester-le-Street
IT’S the pitches. It’s the former players. It’s anyone but England themselves.
As the excuses Eoin Morgan’s team make for their shaky World Cup campaign mount, you can hear Virat Kohli sniggering in disbelief.
India, the only remaining unbeaten team in the tournament, await the imploding English at Edgbaston on Sunday.
Another win for the Indians and England will not only have to beat slick, savvy New Zealand in their last league match but also hope that other teams do them favours.
They could end up crying at their own party, and out of the semi-finals.
How things have changed since you could smell the smugness that found its voice at the Oval on May 30. “Cricket’s coming home,” rose the beery refrain as England completed victory over South Africa.
Little did we know that beating Faf du Plessis’ team at this tournament would be nothing special. A month on, Morgan’s miserables have lost to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia. Once were favourites, now are fading.
After Kevin Pietersen branded Morgan “scared” for appearing to back away when facing Mitchell Starc, Jonny Bairstow moaned: “People are waiting for us to fail. It’s a typical English thing to do.”
Michael Vaughan called Bairstow’s comments part of a “negative, pathetic mindset”.
Back came Bairstow: “Bloody hell. That’s pretty rich.”
And while he was at it: “The pitches that we’ve been playing on the last two years are surely the pitches we [should] be playing on in a World Cup. I don’t know why they’ve changed.”
Because it’s the World Cup. Not England’s World Cup.
India, who have shown nary a weakness, could do us all a favour by hammering home the message on Sunday.
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