Britain will play in Euro/African Group I after a 3-2 defeat to Austria at Wimbledon, which was confirmed when Alex Peya beat Alex Bogdanovic in four sets on Court One.

The British number two was defeated 2-6 6-4 6-4 6-2.

Earlier, Andy Murray had made the scoreline 2-2 with a 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-1 victory over Jurgen Melzer.

Murray won both his singles matches in the World Group play-off but was left out of Saturday's doubles match, a decision by Lloyd which came back to haunt him as Bogdanovic extended his poor cup record.

"It was my decision and I take the rap for it," said Lloyd. "That's what I'm captain for."

Lloyd remains unsure whether it was the right call not to play Murray in the doubles as the world number four was carrying a minor injury.

While Murray's brother Jamie and Ross Hutchins were well beaten in the doubles, the team's leading man was on form in his singles against Melzer yesterday.

"You could say, 'Would Andy have played as well in the singles if he'd played in the doubles'?" said Lloyd.

"Would we have won the doubles? Who knows!

"With Andy in there we probably would have played better but they (Austria's doubles pair) were a very good team.

"I'd like to have a chance to do it all over again but that's obvious after the tie."

Lloyd congratulated Austria, saying: "They deserved their victory, they were the better team."

But he added: "We worked hard to get into the World Group and now we're out of it."

Discussing Bogdanovic's poor record and apparent inability to convert promising starts into victories, Lloyd said: "He's got to physically get stronger and mentally he can be a late bloomer.

"He has hit the ball well this week but you're judged by your results.

"He played the best he could, but he couldn't come through.

"Alex has been around for a lot of years. For him it's a question of where his commitment wants to go from here.

"How far does he want to go up the ladder?"

A major concern for Lloyd could be over whether Andy Murray wants to play in the Davis Cup next season, given the low level Britain have dropped to, despite his impressive on-court efforts.

"We'll see what happens with Andy," said Lloyd. "I hope he plays next year now we're down a division.

"If he doesn't, we'll go with some younger players and try to rebuild again.

"For someone like Andy Murray, he wants to be on the world stage and play on the big stage.

"I want Andy to play for us and he's going to be the first phone call when the draw comes out next Thursday."