Matthew Mott fronted up to the press after England were beaten by 100 runs in Lucknow having been bowled out for 129 in the chase. He was asked about Eoin Morgan’s comments by a reporter. Morgan had said while commentating on the match that he thought England could have problems in their dressing room which are fuelling their poor decision-making and run of bad performances on the field.

“I don’t think that at all,” responded Mott. “I think anyone that’s inside our tent at the moment would say that despite our results, we’re an incredibly tight-knit unit… I said to the boys the other day, Dave Humphries, who’s a former rugby international, was flabbergasted just how tight the unit was when he came in for a week to observe us, given the results that we’ve had.

“There’s every opportunity when you’re losing to splinter and go separate ways. I can only say from my opinion, the group’s been incredibly strong in that part. If you see our training sessions, they’re full of fun. People are putting their arm around each other, trying to help them. It’s easy to do that when you’re winning, it’s a lot harder when you’re losing. I’m proud that we keep trying to get up.”

England lost to New Zealand in their opening match of the World Cup before registering their so-far only win over Bangladesh. They then lost to Afghanistan for the first time in international cricket before losing to South Africa and Sri Lanka. While their loss to India in Lucknow doesn’t mathematically eliminate them from the tournament, they sit in last place in the table and need a run of exceptionally favourable results to qualify.

“Eoin’s entitled to his opinion,” continued Mott. “He’s obviously been away for a couple of weeks with the birth of his child. He hasn’t been in and around the rooms, but I’ll certainly take that up with him and have a chat to him. We’ve got a really good relationship with him. So if he’s seeing something that I’m not, I’ll definitely have that conversation.”

Mott took over the England white ball coaching job in 2022. His first series in charge was a tour of the Netherlands that summer, which Morgan announced his international retirement halfway through.