Ben Stokes has pinpointed the biggest issue behind England's recent poor form in One Day Internationals after defeat to South Africa on Friday. England suffered a calamitous collapse at the Mangaung Oval, having fallen short of South Africa's 298 target by 27 runs despite putting on a first-wicket stand of 146 inside the opening 20 overs.
After Jason Roy hit a superb 113 from 98 balls, and his opening partner Dawid Malan added 59 from 55, England's batting lineup crumbled. Just one other player aside from the openers managed to break the 20-run mark - after captain Jos Buttler scored 36 - as the visitors lost their 10 wickets for just 125 runs.
The defeat maintains England's recent poor run in ODIs, with Buttler's team losing seven of their last nine 50-over matches in a torrid spell for the reigning world champions.
The poor spell has no doubt come as a shock to many, with England having been such a dominant force in white ball cricket over the last five years. Many within the cricketing world have given their thoughts on what is exactly going wrong for Buttler and co.
That includes World Cup-winning hero Stokes, who took to Twitter to defend his fellow countryman on Friday. Stokes has no doubt left a glaring hole in the England team, having retired from 50-over international cricket late last year.
The reasoning for Stokes ODI retirement was down to the recent brutal schedule of international cricket, and the all-rounder has labelled the sheer amount of matches as the reason for England's downfall. After a tweet by Wisden Cricket asked why England were struggling in the ODI arena, Stokes replied: "Begins with S ends with E and has chedul in there as well."
Speaking post-match, captain Buttler believes his team need to resort back to the positive style batting that has served English cricket so well in recent years. He told Sky Sports: "I think we should keep going. To have that conviction and commitment to our game and keep taking it on.
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"I think that's something that's served us well for a very long time. "That doesn't always mean trying to hit fours and sixes, but imposing ourselves on the game, playing a very positive brand of cricket, and I think we didn't quite commit enough to that.
"Credit to South Africa, they came back really well and took wickets, but I thought we could have kept trying to take it on a bit and put pressure on them." England will be back in action on Sunday for the second of their three-match ODI series in South Africa.
