PAUL NEWMAN: Misfiring England batters need to learn from savvy Stokes after throwing wickets away

It’s a question that goes to the heart of the philosophy that has brought England so much success since the Eoin Morgan-inspired revolution of 2015.

Can they play out the situation or are they basically still flat bullies who only know one way to fight no matter the circumstances – attack, attack, attack?

Only Ben Stokes realized on Saturday that England had to knock the ball around and add the strange boundary once Jos Buttler and Alex Hales took them to 75 without a loss in response to Sri Lanka’s 141 for eight at the SCG.

And it was a good job for England, holding his head as everyone around him lost theirs as they nearly missed their big chance of reaching the semi-finals of this unpredictable World Cup by imploding in the face of Sri Lankan spider.

Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali and, to a lesser extent, Sam Curran gave it all away with a desperately poor selection of shots, while Harry Brook was again cheaply sacked and still has to show what it’s all about on an Australian stage. It left England hugely relieved when Chris Woakes cut Lahiru Kamara to the border with just two balls left to take England across the line and on to Adelaide, where they face India on Thursday in a ravishing semi-final.

The extenuating circumstance is that this important encounter was inexplicably played on a field previously used for two other games in this tournament and the hitting became clearly more difficult for both sides as the innings went on and the ball softened.

The charitable vision is that England learn to win ugly, but their failing batters can’t afford to get it wrong again, even though they’ve admittedly gone against the trend of this World Cup twice by winning while chasing.

However, the only man other than Stokes who can anchor a T20 innings is Dawid Malan who is now in serious doubt for the rest of this tournament after tweaking his left groin in the field at the SCG and not taking part in the nervous run chase.

If Malan can’t play on Thursday, England will either bring in the only other specialist batter on their squad, Phil Salt, or add another death bowling option in Chris Jordan and hope the rest of the batters can learn from Stokes’ example. .

If England need a team replacement then Liam Dawson is the only real choice of England’s three traveling reserves, but there’s the intriguing possibility they go out and pick one of those who arrive on Wednesday for three one-day internationals against Australia after the World Cup . If so, James Vince and even Jason Roy are alternatives.

The good news is that the Adelaide Oval will provide a new ground for the semi-finals, which should suit England’s stroke play, but they will still want their batters to emulate Stokes, whose presence in this squad has been widely questioned. Stokes hasn’t looked the least bit like a modern T20 batter in this tournament, even when he brought a little old-fashioned nous into this chase. But his unbeaten 42 by just two fours is exactly why he remains one of the first names on the England team sheet.

Mark Wood said: “I know people have questioned his place in the team, but when you need him, he stands up. That’s another moment in his career where we look back and say, “When the team needed him, he was the man to count on”.

“Ben never looked shocked or anything like that because he’s been there and done it. You think he’s under pressure, but he’s taking it on his foot.’

So England still have a lot to do to prove they can unite the 50-over and T20 world titles – starting with adding more of the Stokes substance to their undisputed batting style.