England have had the worst possible defence to the Cricket World Cup. The defending champions are currently languishing in bottom place in the 10-team standings after winning just one of their six matches so far. And England talisman Ben Stokes didn't pull any punches when asked for an assessment of his team's performance in India. Follow all the action from the Cricket World Cup 2023 on our special World Cup section. You can also find the latest stats, like the top scorer and the highest wicket-taker of the current edition, upcoming World Cup fixtures and the points table on the site. "We've had a disastrous World Cup. There's no point sugarcoating that, because it's the truth. The problem is that we've been c**p," he said at a press conference in Ahmedabad where the team will take on Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday. Interestingly, when asked which team he could see going all the way to the title this time around, he smiled and said: "South Africa are looking good. Probably not the answer you wanted?" South Africa have been one of the two most dominant teams so far at the ongoing Cricket World Cup. But they're second in the standings behind India, who are unbeaten. In their previous match against India, England were handed a 100-run defeat at Lucknow. Stokes went on to elaborate about what was going wrong with the England team. "Everything we've tried throughout this World Cup, through trying to put pressure back on to the opposition in the way in which we know, or trying to soak up the pressure in a different way, which we know we've done before and been successful with, it's just not worked. "Every opportunity that we've had in front of us where we feel like we can take control of the game, the opposition's managed to get it back towards them. We've just not been able to put a full game together, or even get close to putting a full game together - except against Bangladesh," he said. Knee surgery after World Cup Stokes also revealed that he would undergo surgery on his left knee after England's World Cup ends. He said he would look to be fighting fit by the time the England team play a Test series in India early next year. He added that he was expecting to be out for five and seven weeks after the procedure. "I will hopefully be fine for the Test series (versus India). I am having surgery after the World Cup… There was a lot of time put into deciding when to get it done. The India Test series, which we start at the end of January, I should be fine to go by then," Stokes said. Exercise-induced asthma Stokes was recently spotted with an inhaler during a training session in Bengaluru, usually used by asthmatics. When asked about it, he said: "Sometimes it happens when you go to a new city in India where the air is slightly different," he said. "That could be a reason for it: Bangalore, when we actually turned up, just felt a lot fresher. Doing the running that I was doing (shuttle runs) does bring it on a lot easier than normal."
