Marcus Trescothick admits England revival is needed to book World Cup spot

Assistant coach Marcus Trescothick accepts England’s struggling One Day International side cannot afford to take their World Cup spot for granted, stressing the need to “climb those rankings”.

Back-to-back defeats against South Africa at Headingley and Lord’s have cost England the Metro Bank Series with a game to spare on Sunday, and kept them rooted at eighth in the ICC standings.

For a side who were trailblazers and world champions in 2019 that is a significant fall from grace and one that even raises concerns over their automatic place at the next tournament.

Co-hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe are already guaranteed to be there, with the next eight berths determined by the table. While there is plenty of time to pull away from the likes of Bangladesh and the West Indies before the cut-off, there is an realisation in camp that the malaise cannot continue.

“If you look solely in terms of making sure we qualify for the World Cup, that is the situation we find ourselves in at the moment,” Trescothick admitted.

“We’re in an interesting position where we need to climb those rankings. Longer term there’s also a bigger picture and we need to look at being at the top of those rankings and beyond. We want to go and compete in the biggest competitions like we did in 2019.

“No doubt it’s been a challenging period and a sustained amount of time where you’re trying to adapt and get back to the formula we want. The journey hasn’t been easy, of course not, but I definitely feel we’re improving and moving in the right direction even though the last two results have been disappointing.”

The quest for points means the game at Hampshire’s Utilita Bowl is far from a dead rubber and England have made just one change for the match.

Jamie Overton, who this week announced he was stepping away from red-ball cricket, makes his first appearance of the series in place of fellow seamer Saqib Mahmood.

That means the structure of the XI remains unchanged, leaving part-time spinners Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell to shoulder a share of the bowling work. That cost England at Lord’s, where they shipped an eye-watering 112 across 10 overs, but there has been no rebalancing of the side in response.

Ben Duckett also keeps his spot at the top of the order despite being sufficiently weary and short of form to be pulled out of next week’s T20 series. He now has one more innings to find his rhythm before a much-needed pre-Ashes rest.

“We need certain players to be firing and Ben is certainly one of those,” said Trescothick.

“At this point in time, this (break) is the best way to maximise performances going forward as we head into a big winter.

“We need the boys firing going into November, December, January. That’s not to say things aren’t important coming up but sometimes you just have to take your foot off the gas a bit and rejuvenate the mind. Then you can get back on the horse and crack on.

“This is a good opportunity for Ben to get a bit of rest.”