Psychologist relieves anxiety to make hosts finally feel at home

Morgan recruits help to remind team how they got to world No 1, writes Nick Hoult at Edgbaston

Edgbaston was a sea of Indian blue and orange but it was the place where England finally looked

comfortable playing in their home World Cup. Two shattering defeats by Sri Lanka and Australia forced England to go back to basics, to rebuild from the bottom upwards, and it started with two team “culture” meetings in Birmingham this week called by captain Eoin Morgan.

The message was simple. Morgan, accompanied by David Young, the team’s psychologist, reminded the players of their motivations at the start of the tournament: to embrace this unique opportunity of winning a World Cup on home turf and to be courageous with their cricket.

Young was at nets in the lead-up to this game, helping to calm the anxiety that looked set to sink the campaign. Sometimes, teams just need a refresher of what has made them successful in the first place. In the whirlwind of a World Cup, ingrained habits can be lost in the fog. But they were back here.

“The manner in which we played with the bat resonated with everybody in the changing room. It was the identity we wanted to play with in this tournament,” Morgan said after the game.

Courage is one of the three mantras of this side, introduced by Morgan and Joe Root at a team meeting in Sri Lanka last year, where they gave each of the three Lions on the England badge a meaning (courage, unity and respect). Courage, Morgan and Young told the team, meant sticking by the controlled aggression to their batting that has been the main plank of their success for four years.

Unity was shown in how the players did not disown Jonny Bairstow when he took a swipe at Michael Vaughan after he gently questioned the team’s performances following two sorry defeats. Jos Buttler played peacemaker, making light of it by saying, “It is just typical Yorkies”. In the dressing room it was dismissed as “Jonny being Jonny”, and his need to create a siege mentality to draw the best out of himself.

Giles, the team director, called Bairstow on Thursday night and could empathise with his player. Giles himself overreacted at times to criticism as an England player and sounded off during the 2005 Ashes before finding his focus and playing a major part in that win. He told Bairstow not to see enemies where they do not exist.

Respect was represented by how England took time to gauge the conditions at Edgbaston. They were 47 without loss after 10 overs, a solid but not scintillating start.

Ordinarily, Jason Roy would never have played. He is not fit and hamstring strains are difficult to shake off. But in desperate times you have to gamble. Back to courage again. Morgan needed Roy to bring a sense of calmness at the top of the order, in particular to help restore Bairstow’s mindset. He loves batting with Roy and is happy to play in his slipstream.

The message got through to Bairstow. There was no showy celebration of his hundred, no ramming it down the throats of his fictional critics like he did when he scored a century in Colombo last year. Respect.

After the game he paid tribute to his team-mates. “This was the closest to a complete team performance we have produced in this competition,” he said. There was luck. Bairstow could have played on twice early in his innings and Roy’s gloved catch on 21 was missed by the umpires and India, who failed to review. But Roy bristled with intent, even in defence. After seeing off Jasprit Bumrah, he went on the attack, and the spinners felt the full force of his return.

The defeat by Sri Lanka had been a brutal shock to the system. England lacked their usual energy in the run chase at Headingley, patting around Sri Lanka’s spinner, Dhananjaya de Silva, at four an over, including 24 dot balls.

It was back to type here. Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were struck at eight an over.

The return of Roy was crucial, but another important decision that will attract less attention was to recall Liam Plunkett in place of the struggling Moeen Ali. Plunkett is Morgan’s trusted bowler, a player who provides ballast and maturity. A coincidence possibly, but England’s three defeats have all come in matches when Plunkett has not played.

Plunkett’s three for 55 from 10 overs included the massive wickets of Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya and he provided the calm head at just the right time, summing up England’s return to winning ways.