England have little option but to pick Stokes for World Cup rescue mission

The logo for this World Cup features nine square symbols, each intended to represent – quite how is not always obvious – a word with which the tournament may be associated. It is mostly a pretty banal list: joy, respect, power, pride, bravery, glory, wonder, passion. But there is one that stands out, completely unexpected in this company but absolutely deserving of its place: anguish.

As England’s players and staff gathered around the large, boardroom-style table next to their dressing room after the 69-run defeat to Afghanistan on Sunday, it did not take a body language expert to work out which of the nine best represented them. There were no flying teacups, nor for that matter movement of any kind, just slumped shoulders and thousand-yard stares.

The holders had been thrashed by a side that has never played a home game and that in World Cups had only beaten Scotland – two tournaments ago by the narrowest of margins. This group that travelled with dreams of perhaps going on to emulate the great Australia side that won three successive titles between 1999 and 2007, had gone on to emulate the current Australia, engulfed in early group-stage crisis.

Their tournament is not dead. There are six group games remaining and it is possible – though it would require quite the transformation – they will win five of them, which is probably what will be required to reach the semi‑finals. “It’s part of cricket, you win some, you lose some. You can’t win every game and we just lost a game,” Adil Rashid said.

“You’re going to have games where players are out of form, that’s just part of the game. But I do believe we’ve got the squad, we’ve got the team, we’ve got the mentality to be hungry.”

There was a contrast here to what Harry Brook