Root says England must keep cool heads in crunch World Cup clash with India

Morgan's side may need to win both of their remaining matches against India and New Zealand to reach semi-finals. "We´ll see these two games as quarter-finals," Joe Root.

By Web Desk
June 27, 2019

LONDON: Joe Root admitted England have been missing the comforts of home despite being World Cup hosts and misread some of the pitches prepared by the ICC.

The England star expects emotions to run high against India in Birmingham on Sunday where 80 per cent of fans will be supporting the opposition.

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Morgan's side may need to win both of their remaining matches against India and New Zealand. Yet Root believes getting caught up in the atmosphere would be a mistake.

“I personally think you have to be very calm about how we approach the next couple of games,” Root said.

"We believe we´re still more than capable of qualifying for the semi-finals and when that happens, it doesn´t really matter how you got there because that´s when the tournament really starts to kick in," he added.

"We´ll see these two games as quarter-finals if you like, which in a way when it comes round to the knockout stage should serve you well."

"You´re going to have to win big games at some stage in the tournament if you´re going to go on and win it, so it may be that ours have come just a little bit sooner than we anticipated," said England star.

A defeat by Australia at Lord´s on Tuesday leaves England's hopes of reaching the knockout stage in the balance.

England are in fourth place with eight points in the table after playing seven matches, just one point ahead of Bangladesh and Pakistan. Whereas Sri Lanka stand at seventh with six points in six matches.

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