'Hapless' England cop it from the UK tabloids

Kevin Pietersen has had the door opened for a surprising return to the England cricket team, but may be glad he's not part of the current World Cup squad given the tabloid headlines in Old Blighty today.

The full force of Fleet Street's scorn was poured on Eoin Morgan's men following their nine-wicket loss to Sri Lanka in Wellington on Sunday, putting them in danger of failing to progress to the knockout rounds.

Quick Single: Pietersen given a glimmer of hope

"The hapless, horrific England cricket team suffered another thrashing and now are only one mishap away from the ultimate World Cup humiliation," wrote The Sun's cricket correspondent John Etheridge.

"Eoin Morgan's bunch of misfiring misfits were swept aside by Sri Lanka," Etheridge continued, labelling the result a "massacre" and said "the England management is obsessed by stats, par totals and historical data".

England will be eliminated from the World Cup if they lose either of their remaining two games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

"If that happens – remember, an entire Ashes tour was brought forward by a year in order to allow five months' preparation for this tournament – then head coach Peter Moores and team managing director Paul Downton must both be relieved of their jobs," added Etheridge.

"England are so far behind the rest of the world in 50-over cricket that it is nothing short of embarrassing."

The Telegraph's Nick Hoult labelled the result "a galling, wretched defeat for England because for once everything had seemed to be going so well against a credible opponent".

"But at the end of the match (Joe) Root looked close to tears in his interview with Sky such was the feeling of devastation. Broken spirits are ripe for a giantkilling, and England's last two matches are against Bangladesh and Afghanistan," wrote Hoult.

"To have scored 309 and lost by nine wickets with 16 balls remaining is a mauling to sit alongside the thumpings by Australia and New Zealand but at least Eoin Morgan did not have to look far for scapegoats.

"His bowling attack was toothless, predictable and gifted too many runs to a regal batsman of high class in Kumar Sangakkara, whose 117 off 86 balls was a wonderful exhibition of one-day batting artistry."

The Telegraph also published  a piece headlined ' Why won't Eoin Morgan sing God Save The Queen?' after the Ireland-born England captain remained silent during the pre-match ritual during the World Cup.

"Morgan is Irish, switching allegiance to England in 2009 in order to play Test cricket. Was his decision a political statement? A deliberate snub to the monarch?" wrote the paper's arts and entertainment editor Anita Singh.

"Invited during a press conference in New Zealand to discuss his reasons, Morgan said it was "a long story" and "a personal thing", adding that he wouldn't sing the Irish anthem either," the article continued.

Former England captain Nasser Hussain used his column in the Daily Mail to say England needed "a good hard look at themselves".

"There needs to be a lot of hard, honest talking in that England camp over the next few days and a re-evaluation of how they are doing things because if they carry on like this they will not be involved in the World Cup for much longer," Hussain wrote.

"The whole tone was set with the sight of Gary Ballance walking out at three after England had got off to a really good start. Now, it's not Ballance's fault. He did not ask to be picked out of position and out of nick."

Hussain advocated for Jos Buttler to be moved up the order and Alex Hales to be brought into the XI.

"Sri Lanka must have looked at England and laughed to see two such key players being under-used and, worse, not being used at all," wrote Hussain.

"There is no magic fix. From what I've heard over the last year or two that culture has been driven by pre-meditated plans and statistics when it should be gut feeling and instinct

"The next week needs to be spent thinking how England can start playing a different brand of one-day cricket. The captain, who used to play with that gut feeling and instinct, needs to take the lead but Darren Lehmann has shown that the coach can change a culture too."

The Mirror's Mike Walters cried "enough is enough, after a second annihilation in a week the England cricket revolution cannot come soon enough".

"And if Paul Downton, Peter Moores, James Whitaker and Andy Flower – the four horsemen of the apocalypse - believe those agitated men picketing the gates of Lord's bearing blunt instruments have come to read the gas meter, more fool them," wrote Walters.

"Even by English cricket's standards of sinking to the occasion, it is a staggering feat of incompetence to suffer annihilation at a rugby stadium in Wellington once. To go back a week later and do it all over again is pure blasphemy."

The paper's self-styled 'king of the pun' did not hold back.

"Nothing has changed in the decade since England posted 325 against Sri Lanka on a belter at Headingley in 2006 and got wiped out by nine wickets, so let's get real," Watlers continued.

"In one-day cricket and Twenty20 showcases, England are dinosaurs stuck in Jurassic Park. Like binge drinking, teenage pregnancies and football hooliganism, we invented these games – and then sat back in our Nissan Micra, watching everyone else overtake us in their Ferraris."

The England and Wales Cricket Board managing director Paul Downton was square in the sights of Walters' verbose attack.

"The day of reckoning is near when you will have to justify your abject leadership," Walters wrote.

Former England off-spinner Graeme Swann, who famously quit the national team midway through last summer's Ashes whitewash, told BBC Radio 5 Live the current set-up was "out of date", the selection policy was too "stubborn" and they were "living in the past".

"I think the problem lies not just with the bowling but the whole approach. It was a very self-congratulatory 310, everyone was saying 'brilliant'. These days that's about average and not a great score," Swann told the BBC.

"We should be looking for 340, 350; The difference between the top teams and everyone else is immense."

For Morgan, however, the answer lay not in failings with the bat but England's bowlers failing to deliver.

"We bowled a lot of bad balls," Morgan said after the defeat. "Over the next couple of days we will get the Hawkeye stuff back and the proof will be in that.

"We showed our class again (with the bat in scoring 309) but when we bowled one bad ball every couple of overs or every over we were going to be punished.

"Over the next few days we will sit down with the backroom staff and debrief the game and see where we have gone wrong and how we can get better."

England's next game is a must-win match with Bangladesh in Adelaide next Monday, March 9.