England travelled to Mumbai on Monday, licking their wounds from a shock 69-run defeat to Afghanistan in Delhi, which leaves them needing not only to beat South Africa on Saturday night, but to deliver the sort of performance which can reinvigorate a dejected squad.

Jos Buttler, England’s captain, addressed his players in the dressing room in Delhi on Sunday evening after his media duties. And it took them more than an hour to leave the venue after Afghanistan sealed their victory as the touring party tried to clear the air.

They flew south-west on Monday afternoon and will have two days off in Mumbai before tuning up for Saturday’s fixture at the Wankhede Stadium. South Africa, their opponents, will have a shorter lead-in and will not arrive in the city until Wednesday, following their fixture against Netherlands in Dharamsala.

Defeats to New Zealand and to Afghanistan mean that England probably need to win five of their remaining six league fixtures to qualify for the semi-finals. But while two more points on the board will be the primary focus against South Africa, they also need to rediscover the fearless, attacking method that underpinned their success in the 2015-19 cycle.

England’s players conceded that, for the second time in three matches at the tournament, they played the type of risk-averse cricket that characterised their one-day teams during the abject run of World Cup performances from 1996-2015. “With the bat and ball, I don’t think we were probably aggressive enough, or took the positive option,” Adil Rashid said after their defeat on Sunday.

“That’s cricket, that happens. Not every time you go out are you going to smash sixes and fours… We’re not too concerned: it’s just a game that we lost.” Asked if England had lost their aura over the last four years, Rashid said: “I don’t think that’s fair. I think that’s pretty unfair.”

England are the holders of both white-ball World Cup titles and in both tournaments, lost games early before going on four-match unbeaten streaks to lift the trophy. Before addressing his players, Buttler said that they could draw on similar experiences. “Everyone will be disappointed in the dressing room and let that sink in,” he said.

“But there’s a lot of guys who have been through lots in their careers in there as well, and guys who have come back from tough situations and shown a lot of character and resilience. It’s a very tight-knit group, so we’ll get around each other and pick each other up, and down ourselves down and go again.

“We’ve played some good cricket in all scenarios, whether we’ve been on top and front-runners and fancied, or whether we’ve had our backs against the wall. It’s a position you find yourselves in. It’s not the position you wanted to be in three games ago, but the character is excellent. There’ll always be belief.”

Buttler would not be drawn on the prospect of sweeping changes for Saturday’s fixture – “it’s too early to say,” he said – but it seems increasingly likely that Ben Stokes will be available after recovering sufficiently from a left hip injury. “He wasn’t fit for this game, but we’ll see how he pulls up for the next one,” Buttler said. “He was close.”

He also pushed back against the suggestion that England had “underestimated” Afghanistan, or approached the game with any complacency. “I think that’s a very unfair thing to say,” he told the BBC. “We knew it was going to be a tough challenge. We know they are a very, very talented team – but that being said, we’re obviously disappointed.”

Rashid played the defeat down: “It’s part of cricket. You win some, you lose some. You can’t win every game and today, we just lost a game. We didn’t play our best cricket with bat or ball, or in the field. We’ve still got plenty of games in hand; hopefully, we can put in some good performances and kickstart the competition.

“We’re still confident; we’re still backing our players; we still have that positive frame of mind,” Rashid added. But unless they see signs of a recovery in Mumbai this weekend, England’s supporters are unlikely to share those sentiments.