'We must get back on track straight away, starting with Afghanistan clash'
Thursday 12 March 2015 13:05, UK
Mo catches up with Afghanistan coach Andy Moles, has the latest on his injury and reflects on England’s exit…
I’ve had a few disappointments in my England career but the loss to Bangladesh was the lowest point so far.
Our 45-run defeat to the Netherlands in last year’s ICC World Twenty20 was tough to take but this one hurt so much more because we thought after our wins over India in the Tri-Series that we were on the right track, despite the losses to Australia.
There are no excuses; all of the players, myself included, are looking at themselves thinking what more they could have done. Bangladesh are a good side and deserved to win but we should have been able to chase 275 on the flattest pitch we’ve played on so far, especially with a 54-yard boundary on one side.
Even when we were six down and Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes were batting I felt pretty confident we would get there, just as I was when Chris Jordan went in, but his run out was a big blow.
That decision was a tough one to take because CJ can strike a good ball and at times like that it’s tempting to think that when things are against you they’re against you, but the match didn’t hinge on that one decision; we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.
Bangladesh had a plan against our top four to bowl a bit wider in the channel and none of us really tried to use our feet or to make anything happen, which is so frustrating.
We feel we’ve got a good mix of youth and experience in the squad but we just couldn’t fire consistently as a team. It takes time, in my opinion, to build a side so we have to be patient and stick with our core players and management.
It was a horrible feeling sitting helpless in the dugout when Rubel Hossain bowled Jimmy Anderson with what was a really good ball.
I know quite a few of the Bangladesh players quite well - as well as Heath Streak, their bowling coach - and obviously they were very pleased but they were good enough to be as normal as they could be in the circumstances when chatting with us. They deserved their success because they outplayed us on the day.
As I’m sure you know by now, I picked up a strain in my left side while bowling my sixth over; I felt something go and I was in so much pain that I almost stopped bowling halfway through my seventh over, but I managed to get through it somehow.
It was a problem when I was batting too – especially when I dived in for the run out. That was the last thing I needed!
I'll need to have it looked again when we get back to the UK before I know how long I'll be out for but with so much cricket coming up I hope it won't be long.
It does mean, however, that I’ll be watching our final World Cup match against Afghanistan from the sidelines at the SCG, a ground where we played our first World Cup warm-up game against the West Indies.
The team is determined to get over Monday’s defeat as quickly as possible and hopefully we can end our World Cup campaign with a victory.
The story of Afghanistan’s rise to World Cup prominence is incredible and I have a lot of respect for them not least because they have one of the best, if not the best, bowling attack of all the Associate teams.
I played against a few of their team when I was in the Bangladesh Premier League and they’re all good cricketers, so we’ll have to be on our game to get that win.
I know their coach Andy Moles from my Warwickshire days; he was the Under-19 coach for a series against India.
I got on really well with him then and enjoyed his coaching style. He told me that one day I was going to open the batting for England, which gave me a lot of confidence.
He’s a great guy and an equally great coach, who is already getting the best out of his Afghanistan players; it’s obviously a tough job given all the country has been through and I wish him every success.
We had a brief chat and he told me to keep going and keep doing what I’m doing because he likes the way I’m playing; he reminded me to be true to myself and continue to bat aggressively, just as he did when he was my coach.
So that’s the plan.
I know that 2019 is a long way off right now, but it would be unbelievable to get another chance to play for my country in a World Cup – especially on home soil. At 31 I’ll hopefully be at my peak and ready to do my best.
This tournament has been a great learning experience and, if I’m lucky enough to play four more years of international cricket, I’ll be in a much better place.
In the meantime we’ll all continue to work our hardest to put things right.
Watch England take on Afghanistan on Sky Sports World Cup from 3am on Friday morning.
