Eoin Morgan says it will "take time" for David Warner and Steve Smith to be accepted back into the game by fans.

In response to a question on fans booing the pair at Lord's on Tuesday, when England and Australia face-off in the World Cup, the England captain resisted telling fans how they should react to the pair.

Virat Kohli earned plaudits when he had urged Indian supporters to applaud Smith, captain at the time when the ball-tampering incident back in March 2018 saw him, Warner and Test opener Cameron Bancroft incur long-term bans. Kohli, speaking after he match at the Oval a few weeks ago, had sympathy with Smith and felt he had been through enough.

"I just didn't want them to set a bad example, to be honest, because he didn't do anything to be booed in my opinion," Kohli said. "He's just playing cricket. He was just standing there, and I felt bad because if I was in a position where something had happened with me and I had apologised, I accepted it and I came back and still I would get booed, I wouldn't like it, either."

Morgan, by contrast, took a different tact. In his opinion, he has no right to tell fans how to behave, especially given the trivial nature of booing in British sport. And Kohli's interjection was one he felt uncomfortable with.

"I didn't see it [Kohli's comments] but when I heard about it I thought about it for quite a while. I thought about 'would it help in the right way?', 'is it right?'. But it didn't sit right with me.

In further comments to the BBC, Morgan clarified his position on the booing of Warner. "I would never use the position I'm in to influence fans or try to change the game in some way. They have committed something and they have served their penalty. It doesn't necessarily mean they are welcomed back with open arms into the cricket community.

"Regaining trust takes a lot of time. Who knows how long it will take. I don't think I could do anything, or should do anything, to try influence the fans to change their mind."

Both Warner and Smith have been booed at this World Cup, and indeed in the warm-up match at the Hampshire Bowl prior to the tournament, where Australia beat England by 12 runs and Smith notched 116. In the tournament proper, it has made little difference: Warner has struck 447 runs (averaging 89.40) with two centuries and two fifties, with Smith on 244 (40.66) with one hundred and three fifties.

It is that run of form from the duo that gives Finch every confidence that whatever Tuesday brings will be ignored easily. "Whatever the public do you're not going to change it whether anyone comes out and says do or don't, it's going to happen. It hasn't affected our boys one bit I can honestly say that. If anything it has given them a bit more motivation.

"As a player you don't tend to hear what people say. You hear the noise at times but not the specifics and I'm sure it will be the last thing on Steve or Davey's mind when they walk out to bat. If a handful of people or the whole stadium is booing it won't make any difference to how hard they're watching the ball or anything like that. It's just a bit of white noise to be fair."

Morgan also clarified the position on Alex Hales, who was jettisoned from the preliminary World Cup squad after failing a second recreational drugs test. Jason Roy's hamstring tear, which will now see him miss three matches after he was ruled out of Tuesday's match, is said to be recovering well and the opener could even be in contention for Sunday's match with India.

But James Vince's poor run of 14 and 26 against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka respectively has led to talk on other options. Hales would have been the covering opener with six ODI hundreds from 70 caps.

If Roy were ruled out of the tournament, England would be allowed to call in a replacement. Morgan was unsure on whether Hales would be considered by the selectional panel. However, he was now able to confirm that it would take a raft of injuries for Hales to be in contention owing to the order of back-ups they had identified once the main 15 was announced at the end of May.

"I've spoken to Ed Smith (national selector) about this [since Manchester] and the pecking order of replacements hasn't changed [from when we chose the final squad]."

This means Joe Denly would be the replacement opener called up, having been part of the preliminary 15. He eventually lost his place to Hampshire's Liam Dawson because of Dawson's greater ability with the ball.