Cricket World Cup 2019: Eoin Morgan admits England’s confidence has ‘taken a hit’ in wake of Australia defeat

The loss, coming just three days after the shock reverse against Sri Lanka, leaves England’s semi-final hopes hanging in the balance

Eoin Morgan has admitted confidence in the England dressing room has “taken a hit” after the chastening defeat to Australia left them staring at an early exit from the World Cup.

The hosts slumped to a second successive loss as Jason Behrendorff and Mitchell Starc ripped through the top order to secure a comfortable 64-run win at Lord’s.

The result, coming just three days after the shock reverse against Sri Lanka at Headingley, leaves England’s semi-final hopes hanging in the balance with matches against tournament heavyweights India and New Zealand to come.

Morgan’s side could well have to win both of those to progress with the skipper vowing to “lead from the front” to help his team make the final four.

"I think it will take a little bit of a hit, but not across the changing room," he admitted. "We go back to what we do well and we'll still strive to do that in Sunday's game (against India).

"Ideally I'd like to lead from the front. The majority of captains have success when they lead from the front.

"So contributions in the next two games from me might have an impact in the changing room. So hopefully I can make a difference."

Behrendorff claimed a maiden ODI five-wicket haul on his Lord's debut as England crumbled to a third defeat in seven round-robin matches.

Ben Stokes hit a battling 89 while dealing with tightness in his calves, but injured Jason Roy's stand-in James Vince failed again with a duck, with Morgan, Joe Root and Moeen Ali also failing to reach double figures.

Morgan admits his underperforming side have gone away from their “batting mantra” over the last two matches.

"Everything is in our control, and we just need to produce performances worthy of winning either one or the next two games," he added.

"We've struggled with the basics of what we call our batting mantra, showing intent, building partnerships and doing it in our own way.

"We haven't done those for long enough periods of games. Either chasing down 230 or 280, that's disappointing. Our batting mantra is always evolving - the way we've played it's evolved quite a lot.

"I thought the way we played against Afghanistan in the first 15 overs, probably in 2015 and 2016 would not have happened."