"We haven't been good enough": Dawid Malan on England's performance at CWC 2023

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, the English opener Malan said that they hadn't been good enough at the extravagant tournament in India.

Malan added that they have hoped to come to India for a semi-final spot and were preparing for that, but they just haven't been good enough.

"Yeah, we haven't. You can talk about your personal form or runs or wickets, whatever it is but at the end of the day you want the team to do well and to win games of cricket and as a collective, we haven't been good enough and the proof is in the pudding, if you want to put it that way. We're seventh on the log, which isn't where we'd like to be at this stage of the tournament. We'd have hoped to come here pushing for a semi-final spot and preparing for that, but we just haven't been good enough," Malan said.

Talking about England's performance at the ODI World Cup 2023, he further added that it was a 'massive disappointment' tournament.

Malan added that they are extremely disappointed with their own performances.

"I think there's massive disappointment and regret from us all that we haven't been able to perform as well as we would have as a team. We'd have loved to have been here at the business end and replicating what that fantastic team did in 2019 and what we did in the 2021-22 World Cup, I can't remember, 2020 World Cup, but it just hasn't been and I think as a group reflecting on it, we're extremely disappointed with that," he added.

When asked about Malan's own fitness, he said that his body's quite sore and it's been for a long time.

Malan added that he had some quiet moments in the last year.

"I guess from a physical side - the body's quite sore. I've got to admit it's been quite long. When you're winning games of cricket it doesn't feel as sore when you're losing it, you know it starts to feel a bit heavy, but from a batting point of view, I feel like I'm playing as well as I've ever played. I don't think you know I'm getting worse if you want to put it that way yeah, I've had some quiet moments in the last year or so where I haven't scored as many runs that I've liked but when I have played well, I feel like I'm still as good as I've ever been, and I guess that desire to keep scoring as many runs as I can is always there it's just whether you know the body can stay with that," he added.

England squad: Jos Buttler (C), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Brydon Carse, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.

Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (C), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim. (ANI)