Michael Atherton: "I think we've seen confidence waning away to the point where it's at rock bottom"

Atherton was speaking on Sky Sports after England were bowled out for 156 by Sri Lanka in a must-win World Cup clash

England have been a team playing without confidence as their hopes of retaining their World Cup crown have dissipated over the last three weeks, believes Michael Atherton.

The former England captain was speaking on Sky Sports at the halfway stage of the crucial clash with Sri Lanka in Bangalore, after a positive start in the powerplay became a dismal collapse from 45 without loss to 156 all out inside 34 overs.

"Confidence it like a person's reputation," he said. "It takes a long time to build and then an instant to disappear. I think what we've seen in this tournament is that confidence waning away to the point where it is at rock bottom.

"It was a shocking batting performance. I didn't think England could be worse than in Mumbai (against South Africa) with the bat but they were worse here. There were no real excuses. The pitch held a little bit for the spinners and the cutters that the seamers bowled but it was a really bad performance by England."

Only Ben Stokes passed 30, reaching 43 before holing out to deep midwicket, but even the team's talisman was striving for his best form during his 73-ball innings. Dawid Malan nicked off to Angelo Mathews's medium pace, which also accounted for Moeen Ali, while Jonny Bairstow clothed to mid-on after being involved in the mix-up that caused Joe Root's runout.

"There are no batters in form," added Atherton. "You can't look at that lineup and say: 'He looks in good touch, he looks in good touch.' Very few of them have had long periods at the crease in this competition."

^{England were bundled out inside 34 overs (Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP via Getty Images)}

Jos Buttler, the captain, has endured a dire competition and was once again caught behind while fiddling outside off-stump. He has just 95 runs in five matches, averaging just 19. He has only faced 83 balls in England's campaign. Atherton described him as looking "like a man wearing the burden of leadership heavily".

Moeen had assured that England would move away from that meekness for this must-win fixture, but his dismissal – lobbing Mathews to backward point – was symptomatic of a side miles from its fearless best.

"It is all very well saying what you want to do but when you're struggling, down on confidence, it is not always easy to put those fine words and aspirations into practice," said Atherton. "We've all been there in teams low on confidence and struggling.

"No team has a divine right to be at the top of its game all the time. It is a whole range of factors. We've looked at the factors over the last five games of this competition. But if you look a bit deeper you could argue this is a team at the end of the cycle, you can argue the lack of 50-over cricket and the lack of England's ability to put what they consider to be their best first-choice team in 50-over cricket has camouflaged some of the weaknesses and decline that we have seen.

"It has all come together in the performances that we have seen in Mumbai and in the last couple of days and in Bengaluru today."