After a shock 4-1 reverse against Thailand on the opening day, Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham defeated China B team.
Selby came out on top in his second match by winning a vital final frame against Zhou with a break of 57.
"It' s difficult to find rhythm in this format, playing one frame and then sitting one out," admitted the world number one Selby.
"Yesterday Thailand deserved to beat us. Today we dug in and I played a bit better, especially in the last frame. We' re definitely in the hardest group - Thailand are leading but they still have two tough matches. It won' t be easy to qualify but we' ll be trying our best." Selby added.
England ranked the second from the bottom in Group D, but they still have three matches to play. They are three points behind the group leaders Thailand.
However, Scottish pair John Higgins and Stephen Maguire suffered a surprise 3-2 defeat to Brazil' s Igor Figueiredo and Itaro Santos in Group C. Scotland are now behind Belgium, who smashed Malaysia 5-0.
Higgins said: "I missed an easy pink in the third frame which would have put us 2-1 up and that was the key point of the match. We' re disappointed to lose. The matches are very short and you need a bit of luck to win. Stephen and I have a strong partnership - we win as a team and lose as a team, rather than putting any blame on each other. But playing as a team is hard because you' re thinking about not letting your partner down."
Malta are the only team with a perfect record after Match day 2.
Top seed China A team Ding Junhui and Xiao Guodong are second in Group A with a 5-0 thrashing of Singapore.
