Joe Root urges England players to perform for under-fire Jos Buttler

Reeling from three defeats from their first four games, England know they need a huge turnaround if they are to make it to the semi-finals, with the defending champions sat at the bottom of the table following Afghanistan’s shock win over Pakistan on Monday.

England captain Jos Buttler has come under big pressure, particularly for his decision to bowl first in the heat of Mumbai against South Africa – a decision that contributed to a humbling loss for England

Among Buttler’s number is another player who knows all too well about the struggles of captaining an underperforming team.

Joe Root’s final year in charge of England’s Test team saw his individual efforts with the bat fail to prop up a misfiring XI. And Root has sympathy for Buttler, who he believes is in a similar situation.

“Sometimes as captain you need your players to stand up and perform,” Root said in an interview with Sky Sports. “There’s only so much you can do, you can make all the right decisions, but if the guys aren’t putting in the performances there’s only so much you can do as a leader.

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“He’s led very well in my opinion over the last little while and since I’ve been back in the white-ball stuff.

"I don’t think there’s any worry there that we’re not getting the most out of Jos as a captain. As players, we’ve got to stand up, do our bit and bring that together as a collective to win games of cricket.”

England’s men are reigning white-ball champions in both ODI and T20 cricket, and have been a dominant force in the past eight years.

Part of that success has been built on the simple premise of making front-foot decisions and always taking an aggressive approach

And Root says that the formula facing England during the current tournament should help them come back to those principles.

“I’ve played in a number of different England teams, good ones and bad ones, and this is one of the best ones,” he said.

“This white-ball team, over an eight-year period now, likes very simple messaging and has responded very well to it.

“We have some very simple messaging in front of us right now: we have to go out and we have to win.

“In some ways it unshackles us and frees us up to go and do what we do. Now we’ve just got to go and do it.”

England’s poor form during the tournament has been largely down to a misfiring bowling attack, which has allowed the likes of New Zealand, Afghanistan, and then South Africa to enjoy dominant phases of play and put huge pressure on an unusually subdued English batting line-up.

But Root says it’s not a case that England lack the talent, rather that they haven’t executed their skills on the day.

"Previous campaigns where we haven't fared well, it's been because we're not a strong enough team and we haven't been able to compete on class, but I don't think that's the case with this group.

"Sometimes there's not just a magic pill you can take overnight and it's perfect," Root added. "You've just got to keep putting in the hard work, keep readying the best you can, and understand there's so much talent in this group and so much ability, we will be able to do that.

"All we can focus on is putting that performance in the next game."

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That next game comes against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru on Thursday, with a meeting against tournament hosts India following that in Lucknow on Sunday.

The equation for England is simple. They must win at least four and possibly all five of their remaining matches if they are to reach the knockout stages.