Ben Stokes urges his England team-mates to ‘assert themselves’ after holders’ shock Cricket World Cup defeat by Afghanistan – as head coach Matthew Mott calls for greater bravery ahead of must-win South Africa clash

• England fell to one of their worst defeats against Afghanistan in the World Cup
• NASSER HUSSAIN: Stokes must come back as every game is now like a final

England’s ‘spiritual leader’ Ben Stokes urged his team-mates to rediscover their inner mongrel after the shock defeat by Afghanistan – and remains on course to play his first game in this World Cup against South Africa on Saturday.

Head coach Matthew Mott admitted his side ‘didn’t fire a shot’ during Sunday’s 69-run defeat in Delhi, and needed to relocate their confidence at the start of a title defence that has produced just one win out of three.

And he revealed it was Stokes – having watched the Afghanistan game from the dugout as he continued his recovery from a hip injury – who was the first player to speak up during the dressing-room post-mortem.

With captain Jos Buttler busy doing media duties, Mott had initially addressed the players, telling them England had fought their way out of tight spots at previous World Cups, and stressing the importance of peaking at the right time.

Mott told his team they were ‘backed into a corner’ and ‘had to come out’. He added: ‘We know when we go into that mode and we’re not as forceful and aggressive, the other teams grow from that.’

Ben Stokes has urged his team-mates to all find their ‘inner mongrel’ after their shock defeat

Head coach Matthew Mott admitted his side ‘didn’t fire a shot’ during Sunday’s 69-run defeat

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Then Stokes took over. ‘He’s like the spiritual leader of the group in many ways,’ said Mott, ‘and he spoke really well about that need to assert ourselves, which he’s renowned for. He said we’re normally the team that dictates terms and gets the other team unsettled, disrupted, and for whatever reason we haven’t been able to do that.

‘It went down well, and it brought us back to controlling what we can control. Places like India, there are so many distractions out there and if you don’t bring everyone together and get that clarity about what we can control it can get big on you.’

England are using a quiet couple of days at Mumbai’s classy Taj Mahal hotel to recuperate ahead of a game that will provide more clarity on their chances of reaching the last four.

Mott even bumped into England’s Test coach Brendon McCullum, who is in town on personal business, and jokingly offered him a job swap. But he promised England’s selections for the South Africa game would be ‘minor tweaks’ rather than ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’.

Harry Brook looks undroppable after his mature 66 against Afghanistan, so the return of Stokes is likely to spell bad news for one of the all-rounders. And the way Mott defended Chris Woakes, insisting he has ‘a few credits in the bank’, suggested it could be time for Sam Curran to take a breather after three underwhelming displays.

Above all, though, Mott will tell his players to be braver, after three 10-over powerplays that have brought scores of 51 for one against New Zealand, 61 without loss against Bangladesh and 52 for two against Afghanistan.

‘We pride ourselves on putting the opposition under pressure, and on reflection we’ve been the reactive team two of those games, so we need to turn that round really quickly,’ he said.

Mott added that Stokes’s speech to the players ‘went down well’ and gave them confidence

‘We win these games in the first 15 overs with bat and ball, and we haven’t done that well. We’ve always been on the back foot, trying to pull things back. We need to dominate those first 15 overs.

‘We’re probably missing confidence to puff your chest out, go out there and really take the game on, which this team has been renowned for over a long period of time. You don’t lose your ability overnight, but you can lose your confidence.

‘You learn a lot more from your losses than you do from your wins. Sometimes in tournaments, if you get away to a flyer, it can be a bit of a curse. When you think everything’s going well and it gets to the pointy end and you haven’t been put under pressure… we’ve already been put under a lot. Now, it’s how we respond.’

Barring an injury setback, Stokes will be there on Saturday to ram home the point.

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