T20 World Cup: Three matches to save Brendon McCullum’s job? There are no excuses if England fail again in Super 8s

England’s performance in the group stage was undoubtedly unconvincing.

They were taken to the final ball by Nepal and lost to West Indies in Mumbai, before seeing off Italy and Scotland in Kolkata.

Batterers came in and out – Tom Banton’s 63 wasn’t the only real score to decide the match. Even the ever-reliable Adil Rashid has gone for nine runs per over or over in three of the four matches.

This means that England have shown little sign of being able to threaten late in the tournament up to this point.

Without improvement, this will likely be their fourth disappointing major tournament in a row since they won the T20 World Cup in 2022.

But Brook’s comments also reflect some of the difficulties facing the big nations in this World Cup – a tournament in which no team has built a completely convincing case that they will be champions.

Players from lower-ranked teams expressed their eagerness to perform, not only to cause an upset but also to prove that they deserve the bigger opportunities they are desperately seeking.

In contrast, the Test teams had everything to lose. Just ask Mitchell Marsh when he gets off his flight back to Australia on Saturday.

Despite all the difficulties England faced to finish the matches easily, England were also ahead in all three matches against their lower-ranked opponents.

Nepal’s chase seemed to have stalled, with Scotland 127-8 and Italy 1-2 in the first round of their chase.

Most former England captains don’t admit it, and Brook may have shown it, but to relax in such situations would be humane.

But most of all, England hopes habit will improve their fortunes.

They returned to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, initially spending two nights in Colombo before making a winding trip to Pallekele.

Columbo was where Brook stood up to his teammates in late January and apologized for his late-night antics in Wellington and the subsequent fallout – an attempt to put an end to the Ashes defeat.

Pallekele was where England won all three T20 matches against the same team they face now.

England have said they were poorly prepared for the Ashes and now admit they are unprepared for this group stage. For the next mission, they couldn’t have been better prepared.

“It’s just about reading the pitch and conditions as quickly as possible and communication is key,” Brook said when asked what he learned from the win over Sri Lanka.

“Obviously we had that last game where we only got 130 goals, but it ended up being a winner.

“You never quite know what’s going to happen to the field until you end up playing on it.”