Where did it all go wrong for England?

THEIR BATSMEN MISFIRED

While there have been a handful of impressive individual performances, notably centuries from Joe Root and Moeen Ali, England's batting line-up hasn’t been able to fire as a unit. Ali, who performed well in the matches in Sri Lanka and Australia that preceded the tournament, has scored 64 runs in four innings outside his 128 against Scotland, while top-order batsman Gary Ballance and captain Eoin Morgan haven’t posted a half-century between them in nine innings.

England have topped 300 twice in the tournament, but have been left to lament top-order collapses in their other three matches; they were 6-92 against Australia, 6-108 against New Zealand and 6-163 against Bangladesh.

Not only have England's batsmen not scored enough runs, the runs they have scored haven't come quickly enough. Only two England batsmen - Jos Buttler and Ali - have a tournament strike rate of 100 or more, compared to seven from Australia, five from South Africa and four from New Zealand. Ian Bell (210 runs at a strike rate of 74.20), Morgan (90 runs at 64.74) and Ballance (36 runs at 50.70) have been the chief offenders in this regard.

England have hit 16 sixes for the tournament - seven of which came against Scotland - and 114 fours, an average of a boundary every 10.32 deliveries. This is well behind the likes of New Zealand (a boundary every 7.03 balls), Australia (7.20) and South Africa (7.80). Proteas captain AB de Villiers has cleared the ropes 16 times by himself, matching England's total from five matches.

What they said

"England's batsmen get stranded in their crease. Brendon McCullum charges down the wicket carving bowlers, David Warner and AB de Villiers the same, but England are tentative and look to open the face and dab down to third man. England are clearly not playing the right brand of cricket, but I don’t think any of their top six would get in either Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or India’s teams." - Bob Willis

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Bell and Ali have opened together since January // Getty Images

THEY DON'T HAVE IPL EXPERIENCE

The absence of English players in the Indian Premier League may go some way to explaining the inability of their batsmen to regularly clear the boundary and play the kind of play unorthodox shots that unsettle bowlers.

England's leading cricketers rarely put their hands up for the IPL as it clashes with their home summer, and the schedule means those that who do enter the auction are normally ignored by the IPL franchises.

That trend will continue this year, with Morgan, allrounder Ravi Bopara and exiled batsman Kevin Pietersen the only English players signed by an IPL side. Pietersen was the only Englishman in the IPL last year.

Players from other countries have often credited the IPL for developing their game, most recently Australia's Steve Smith after he swept the awards at the Allan Border Medal night early this year.

Interestingly, most of the leading batsmen at this World Cup - AB de Villiers, Brendon McCullum, Glenn Maxwell, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan - have all thrived in the IPL in the past.

What they said

"If England are serious about being a force in the international game, one thing the administrators have to look at is creating a window to allow our players to participate (in the IPL). The IPL is not going anywhere and we run the risk of slipping behind other teams in both ODI and Twenty20 cricket if our players don't participate." - Andrew Strauss in his 2013 autobiography Driving Ambition

"Not many of our players play much T20 cricket, whether it be abroad or at home, and that to me is the biggest lesson out of this tournament - how much T20 is influencing one-day cricket." - Paul Downton

THEY LACKED PENETRATION WITH THE BALL

Put simply, England's bowlers have been unable to both contain the opposition batsmen and regularly take wickets.

Only once have they bowled the opposition out - against Associate nation Scotland - and nine of the 27 wickets they have taken have come in the final 10 overs of the innings.

Their bowling performances against New Zealand (2-125 from 12.2 overs) and Sri Lanka (1-312 from 47.2 overs) have undoubtedly been the low points.

The opening combination of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, one of the most successful bowling partnerships in England history, has taken a combined 7-463 in five matches at an economy rate of just under six runs an over, a surprisingly low return for a duo that has 444 ODI wickets between them.

Broad's dismissal of Mushfiqur Rahim on Monday was his first wicket since he took two in two balls against Australia on the tournament's opening day. Between those breakthroughs, he conceded 206 runs from 35.2 wicketless overs.

England's leading wicket-taker Steven Finn has taken eight wickets in four matches, but conceded almost seven runs an over and was left out for the match against Bangladesh on Monday.

The sameness of England's attack may have contributed to their disappointing performance; Anderson, Broad, Finn, Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan are all right-arm fast-medium bowlers, while their spin options - Moeen Ali, Joe Root and the untried James Tredwell - are right-arm off-spinners.

England's reliance on right-arm bowling contrasts with the leading wicket-takers at this World Cup so far. Five of the tournament's top 10 wicket-takers, and three of the top five, are left-armers.

What they said

"They haven’t bowled well enough, that’s pretty open and honest. They haven’t been able to take enough wickets or reduce the scoring rate. That’s an area for them to work on." - Jason Gillespie

"It is a difficult one really. They are exceptional bowlers and in tandem we have not been consistent enough to put the ball in the right areas. Again the guys are trying really hard to do it but we haven't managed to take wickets early enough." - Eoin Morgan

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Broad and Anderson have taken seven wickets between them // Getty Images

UNTESTED LINEUP HAD NO TIME TO SETTLE

Having sacked their captain less than two months out from the tournament, selected a new No.3 on the eve of their first match and not picked a highly-regarded allrounder, England's decision makers have come in for heavy criticism.

Not only did the axing of Alastair Cook mean a change in leadership, it also meant the new opening partnership of Ali and Bell had just six matches to establish themselves before the tournament began.

Selectors then made another significant change to the batting order for their opening match of the tournament, with Test No.3 Gary Ballance replacing James Taylor at first drop despite the latter performing strongly during the Tri-Series.

The non-selection of allrounder Ben Stokes in the initial 15-man squad has also been widely questioned, while Pietersen, arguably England's best one-day batsman, remains on the outer.

But having chopped and changed in the lead-up to the World Cup, selectors have been reluctant to change a losing side during the tournament itself.

England were unchanged for their first four matches before Alex Hales and Chris Jordan were brought in for the clash with Bangladesh, while spinner Tredwell and allrounder Bopara are yet to make an appearance in the tournament.

What they said

"England’s changes have created indecision upon the team and there is a nervousness in regards who’s next to go. They had a good thing going in the Tri-Series with James Taylor at three but made a change just ahead of the opener with Australia because Gary Ballance got a good fifty in the warm-up game. You do not do yourselves a favour as selectors doing that; you should stick to your guns a bit longer and then make changes later on if needs be, not at the start." - Nick Knight

"When I watch Ben Stokes I can only think England haven't quite got it right with him yet... Huge talent & should be in the WC squad." - Michael Vaughan

"There will be a million and one things people say could we have done this or could we have done that. What has happened has happened. I don't think that's fundamental ... You know, I'm not going to go about individual things that got over the last five to six months of could we have done this and could we have done that. We'll look at that later. But ultimately it is going to be about making decisions of how we're moving forward and what we're going to do." - Peter Moores