Are England worse than Scotland?

We won’t have much longer to find that one out in cricketing terms as the Auld Enemy are due to cross paths at the weekend, in what is now a must win game for England if they are to stand any chance of progressing from the group stages.

After Australia comfortably beat England in the tournament opener, New Zealand, compounded England’s misery by hammering them, quite literally in Brendon McCullum’s case, out of the ground this morning.

For avoidance of any doubt, England were atrocious, lacked any fight and went as far to make the three lions on their chest, look more like lame domestic cats.

The England bowling attack had no conviction, no aggression and worryingly in the case of Finn, Broad and Anderson, no wickets for far too many runs, particularly in the case of Steven Finn.

The batting was no better. Captain Eoin Morgan seems to have been struck by the curse, as he posted another below par score, although at least this time he actually did score. Bell, Ballance, Taylor and Butler all fell cheaply with only Joe Root able to really hold his head up with a little pride with his knock of 46.

Sadly when everyone else is failing around you, a bigger score is needed on such occassions and Root has not yet shown that he is at the stage to be able to carry a team in that way, not that he should be expected to at such a young age with relative international inexperience.

A lot has been said in the build up to this tournament about the England rebuilding process after the Ashes whitewash and who should and shouldn't be in the team. The one thing this current crop are, rather annoyingly, doing is going along way in proving that Piers Morgan has been right all along, not that anyone with half a brain doesn't know that already.

I have seen many tweets saying I bet Kevin Pietersen is loving this, but to be quite frank I doubt he is. He clearly wanted to be a part of this World Cup and as he is not getting any younger this might have been his last chance to shine in this tournament, as he so often does on the grand stage.

He was dropped from the squad for a list of ridiculous reasons, when in essence it was because he was the obvious choice when it came to choosing the scapegoat for what happened in Australia.

It is not like Dowton or any of the other selection committee can point the finger at a lack of form or action, as Pietersen was in Australia a matter of weeks ago, playing the sort of cricket that contributed massively to us being crowned World T20 champions in 2010.

Unlike Joe Root, he is the sort of guy that can lift a team when the chips are down and although he didn't manage that in the debacle in Australia last year, he was still our highest scorer of the tour.

I don’t want to just dwell on Pietersens omission though, I am a fan of his because he is a great player, but I am a fan of any player who helps England achieve in sport.

Michael Carberry is another notable absentee from this World Cup squad after he played so well in the Big Bash. Why is beyond me? Alex Hales is another that would certainly provide more positivity than some of the current crop, as would Ben Stokes, yet they have been left behind while the others wilt in front of the whole cricketing world.

Going into Sunday’s game, the Scots must now be fired up and full of belief that they can repeat the Irish achievement of the last World Cup and England should certainly not feel that they have any right to entitlement when it comes to gaining a victory over their local rivals.

It takes guts to come through and win when under pressure and right now it is highly doubtful that this current England regime have either and the buck doesn't just stop with the players either.

The selectors for a long time have taken they easy way out i.e. the removal and effective banning of Pietersen. What would have taken guts in the build up to this tournament is, on the realisation of just how lacking the current team is and in light of KP's Big Bash form, the selectors admitting they have made the wrong judgement and recalling our best player in time for us to actually have a chance of competing against the World's best. No such luck on that front.

Then there is the bizarre decision to bring back Peter Moores as coach. It didn't work the first time and it certainly isn't working now. We have heard a lot about ‘great team morale’ and a ‘happy dressing room’ but how on earth can that be when you are getting stuffed every week. I have played my share of sport, although not professionally and I know only too well how it feel when you are getting hammered every week. Something has to give.

Surely once this World Cup is over, and judging from the first two games, that won’t be long, the time will have come for Paul Downton and Peter Moores to go and a full overhaul of English cricket can truly being.

If not we are going to have another painful few years of watching England get whitewashed in all forms of the game and the Ashes may as well be given Australian citizenship, as that is where they will be spending most of their time.