Joe Root said on Tuesday that England had the right captain and the right approach to win their one-day series with India and succeed at the World Cup.
Former England spinner Graeme Swann said the side “do not have a cat in hell’s chance” of winning next year’s World Cup unless they add more firepower to their top-order batting.
He also urged England captain Alastair Cook to give up playing one-day cricket, arguing the opener's style was ill-suited to the modern limited-overs game, where big hitting at the top of the order is considered essential.
His view was backed up by former England captain Michael Vaughan, who told the BBC: "England are looking too much at these new white balls. The other teams have gone power at the top and all the way through. India have got power all the way down. South Africa, Australia are all exactly the same. It's a completely different era because of Twenty20."
England have yet to win the World Cup in nearly 40 years, since staging the first of the tournament’s 10 editions in 1975.
Swann and Vaughan feared the addition of dynamic opener Alex Hales had come too late to bolster England’s World Cup chances.
But Root, speaking ahead of Wednesday’s second one-day international in a five-match series with the world champions in Cardiff, was having none of it.
“We’ve got guys like [Eoin] Morgan and [Jos] Buttler down the order who, as you’ve seen, can win games on their own,” Root said.
“We’re in a good place, and this series will be a good judge of that.”
Root said the team were as much behind Cook when it came to 50-over fixtures as they were in Tests.
“He’s our leader in one-day cricket as well as Tests; he’s done well over a number of years, and we all back him,” Root said. “He’s a fantastic player and has got all of our support.”
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