‘Defeat against Afghanistan doesn’t make us bad cricketers’: Bairstow

England batter Jonny Bairstow backs defending champions to return to winning ways and also insisted their firepower with the bat can’t be criticised despite the early defeats in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023. After two defeats in their opening three matches, the defending champions will look to turn around their World Cup campaign when they face South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. The defending champions were stunned by Afghanistan in Delhi on Sunday, their second defeat in their opening three games.
Bairstow said England did not become a bad team overnight, and despite early losses to New Zealand and Afghanistan, their players remain convinced that they can win the World Cup. The England batter stated that the team remains confident in their ability to string together a string of victories.
“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 said.
“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 not 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,” the right-handed batter said.
Bairstow was asked if England’s batting lineup is still capable of crushing opposing teams in the way it has over the last eight years, and the right-handed batter said, “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.”
“We’re just focusing on ourselves. That’s what we do. We’ll go out and play the way that we’re looking to play and put pressure on the opposition, like we said that we’d try to do. People are allowed to bowl or bat well.