The China Mail - Trescothick warns England cannot take World Cup spot for granted

Successive losses to South Africa mean England are already 2-0 down in a three-match series ahead of Sunday's finale in Southampton. The defeats have left then eighth in the International Cricket Council standings for 50-over cricket.

This represents a significant decline for an England side who were world champions as recently as 2019. It leaves them facing awkward questions regarding their automatic place at the next edition of the global showpiece.

Co-hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe are already guaranteed spots, with the next eight places determined by the ICC rankings.

England still have plenty of time to pull clear of Bangladesh and the West Indies, but assistant coach Trescothick accepts the slump needs to come to an end.

"If you look solely in terms of making sure we qualify for the World Cup, that is the situation we find ourselves in at the moment," Trescothick told reporters on Saturday.

"We're in an interesting position where we need to climb those rankings. Longer term there's also a bigger picture and we need to look at being at the top of those rankings and beyond. We want to go and compete in the biggest competitions like we did in 2019."

The former England opening batsman added: "No doubt it's been a challenging period and a sustained amount of time where you're trying to adapt and get back to the formula we want.

"The journey hasn't been easy, of course not, but I definitely feel we're improving and moving in the right direction even though the last two results have been disappointing."

England have made just one change for Sunday's match with Jamie Overton, who this week announced he was stepping away from longer-form red-ball cricket, replaces fellow paceman Saqib Mahmood.

That leaves the balance of the side unchanged, with part-time spinners Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell -- who between then conceded a costly 112 runs in 10 overs during a five-run loss to South Africa at Lord's on Thursday -- set for another bowling stint.

Opening batsman Ben Duckett has kept his place despite being sufficiently weary and short of form to be withdrawn from next week's T20 series against South Africa. He has one more innings to find some rhythm before a much-needed rest ahead of a showpiece Ashes tour of Australia gets underway in November.

"We need certain players to be firing and Ben is certainly one of those," said Trescothick.

"At this point in time, this (break) is the best way to maximise performances going forward as we head into a big winter.

"We need the boys firing going into November, December, January. That's not to say things aren't important coming up but sometimes you just have to take your foot off the gas a bit and rejuvenate the mind. Then you can get back on the horse and crack on."

N.Lo--ThChM