Former England captain Michael Vaughan is worried by the malaise of current one-day skipper Eoin Morgan and believes the team look like “startled rabbits,” he said yesterday.

Morgan made his third duck in four ODIs as England opened their World Cup campaign with a thumping 111-run defeat to co-hosts Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Vaughan, the 2005 Ashes-winning captain, thinks Morgan’s current form has changed his mindset but he has urged the Irishman to go back to basics.

“When Morgan first came into the England side, he did not think. He just watched the ball and tried to hit it. At the moment, he looks like he is trying to play a technical game,” Vaughan said.

“He is almost trying to get himself in too much. The last thing he needs is to go into his shell and think that he has to play a captain’s innings.

“I want to see the old Eoin Morgan back. He used to take risks. He was the X-factor player. I would tell him to go away over the next few days, hit some balls and rediscover that free spirit we have all enjoyed watching in one-day cricket.”