England need spark at T20 World Cup after unconvincing progress into Super Eights

It was always forecast that England's T20 World Cup defence would not start in earnest until this week, although at times over the past fortnight it looked like it might never start at all.

By the skin of their teeth, Jos Buttler's men are still alive, having just about beaten the weather to beat Namibia on Saturday night, then watched Marcus Stoinis drag Australia away from their flirtation with the defeat to Scotland that would have sent the outsiders into the Super Eight in England's stead.

"It was a nervous watch at times," admitted Buttler, whose team saw rain fall for much of the day in Antigua before sprinting on to see off Namibia by 41 runs in a reduced 10-over per side game.

The pre-seeding of Super Eight pools, as well as the resetting of net run-rate across the survivors, mean this is a tournament effectively beginning afresh. So, for all the chaos of the last two weeks, this pause before the Super Eight begins on Wednesday ought to provide a moment to breathe.

Reality, though, is something different, and whether England go into the next phase with a feeling of momentum or with a degree of unease may go some way to defining their fate.

On the face of it, that pre-ordained draw has been kind. The USA's shock progress ahead of Pakistan means England are in what looks the softer of the two pools, alongside the co-hosts — the US and West Indies — and South Africa.

Exactly where they are at, though, is harder to gauge. When half of the warm-up series against Pakistan was lost to bad weather, there was solace in the fact that three matches against associate nations might turn the first group stage into a de-facto prep camp. But more rain and England's failings have seen the last two of those, against Oman and Namibia, instead unfold like a series of video game mini-quests and there has been no opportunity to mould a side, nor tune into the conventional rhythms of the format. In England's one 'normal' match, against Australia, they were hammered.

There are selection questions, too, around the make-up of the seam attack and how best to get Harry Brook batting higher up the order.

West Indies are first up in the early hours on Thursday and England's campaign is sorely in need of a spark.