As Sri Lanka pushed England closer to the ODI World Cup exit door on Thursday with an 8-wicket win, former stars seemed pretty unhappy with the lacklustre performance by the defending champions in the ongoing cricketing extravaganza.

A horrendous batting performance from Jos Buttler and co. in Bengaluru against Sri Lanka meant England suffered their fourth defeat in 5 matches.

England, who won the toss and opted to bat, folded for a lowly 156 inside 34 overs and the likes of Michael Vaughan, Paul Collingwood, and Ravi Shastri seemed baffled by the sliding England campaign.

“This is turning out to be one of the worst World Cup campaigns in English cricket history.. btw.. & we have had some stinkers,” wrote Vaughan on social media platform X.

“It’s difficult to watch. You can see that there is a lack of confidence among all batters. They tried to be ultra-aggressive and put Sri Lanka under pressure but it didn’t work. Whatever they are trying doesn’t seem to work. All of their shots went to hand. It was a brilliant performance from Sri Lanka. They put England under pressure. They suffocated them,” Collingwood said on Star Sports.

“This England team, the way I look at it, not only lacks confidence but also lacks direction in the way they are playing. Some of the shots that they are playing are playing the numbers game at times. When Bairstow was looking to play normal shots while batting with Malan, the runs were coming. The moment he tried to force it, cheeky shots, he got out, a couple of more wickets fell and they lost their way. I haven’t seen an England side where the entire top-order is out of form. There is a lack of rhythm, a lack of fluency and that comes from a lack of confidence,” Shastri said.

After the defeat against Sri Lanka, England slid to the 9th position in the standings. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, managed their second win in the competition and moved to the fifth spot.