England left-arm spinner Monty Panesar said the side
remains focussed on performing well at next month`s World Cup and will not be
distracted by last week`s tri-series finals success over world champions Australia.
England recovered from a 5-0 Ashes series drubbing to
overcome Australia (2-0 in the best-of-three finals) and New Zealand
in the tri-series, and can now be considered as a serious contender for cricket`s
showpiece event in the Caribbean.
"The win has lifted everyone, everyone`s very positive.
But obviously we are still going to be focussed (for the World Cup)," the
24-year-old told Reuters on Friday during his visit to Mumbai for a cricket
reality television show.
"We`ve shown in Australia that we are a good one-day team.
We can have a good tournament and do well in the World Cup," said Panesar,
who last year became the first Sikh to represent England in test cricket during
a series in India.
England, who lost all three World Cup finals they have participated
in, are grouped with New Zealand, Kenya and Canada in Pool C in
the West Indies.
Despite clinching the tri-series with four-wicket and 34-run
wins over Australia, England are struggling with injuries to captain Michael
Vaughan and seamers Jon Lewis and James Anderson.
"We just showed great character," Panesar added.
"We played together as a team --- the senior players led
from the front and the youngsters just followed them," added the player
who made his one-day international debut during the series before being picked
for the World Cup.
"The test series was tough," Panesar added.
"(But) we kept practising as hard as we could and tried to show the character
that we did.
"We played collectively... we just took it from there. It shows that we
as a team have got lot of strength, a lot of team spirit amongst us."
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