Liam Livingstone has insisted all is well in England’s World Cup squad, describing their days together as “probably the best time of our lives” and dismissing Eoin Morgan’s suggestion of problems in the group.
“With all due respect to Morgs, everyone loves him in the dressing room but that’s absolutely not true,” Livingstone said. “The one thing about the unit is that if things aren’t going well, you’re probably going to be tested more often. It’s easy to say the locker room is great when things are going really well.
“As far as I can see, everyone is working with all their might to turn things around. Things didn’t go the way we wanted and we didn’t play as well as we wanted, pretty much all of us at the same time, but there are certainly no rifts in the camp.”
Livingstone said the atmosphere had not worsened despite England lying bottom of the 10-team World Cup table with five defeats from six games, citing as an example the criticism of Dawid Malan after his outstanding on-field performance against India on Sunday as “this is something we are not used to from Mala.”
“We do our best to have as much fun as possible,” Livingstone said. “It’s obviously not easy when you lose so badly a few times in a row, but everyone is trying to work together to change that. We still have three games left and a lot ahead of us.”
Livingstone was the top scorer for England against India – albeit only with 27 – but he was terribly out of form with the bat and was not used for the game against South Africa. Nevertheless, he really enjoys this time with the team. “Whether you play or not, there is a role you have to play,” he said. “I’m coming to play for England and it’s probably the best time of our lives. We’re pretty proud to be able to do that.
“We come, do what we’re told and the confidence comes from winning games. I think when we start winning games again we’ll see that. We just had a loss of confidence at the wrong time.”
Although England’s chances of reaching the World Cup semi-finals are now exceedingly slim, they established during the India game – although the decision was made two years ago – that they are also playing for a place in the 2025 Champions Trophy, and That’s what they have to do to finish in the top eight of the 10-person group.
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“It gives us something to hope for in the next three games,” Livingstone said. “Everyone is trying their best to turn things around. We’re still trying to play our aggressive cricket and have as much fun as we can but ultimately it’s not working for us at the moment. We keep losing wickets in lumps, which kills you in any format of cricket. Defeat doesn’t really boost confidence and we’re all just lacking a bit of confidence at the moment.”
