With England knocked out of Cricket World Cup, will Jos Buttler’s captaincy come under fire? | Cricket-world-cup News
The question that England need to ask apart from being mystified their world cup campaign, and wagging their fingers at the unknown, is about their captain Jos Buttler. The way he threw his wicket against Australia, as England went down despite Ben Stokes’s attempts to infuse some fight, captures his internal mess, and since he is the captain, that of his team’s. Not that his poor form is puzzling. Buttler averages just 13.50 from 15 ODIs spread over ten years in India. In 57 Tests, he averaged less than 32 before he was finally let go. These days, he sparkles as an opener in T20’s.
Pale eyes, whispery voice, a preference for monosyllables, all contribute to the overall sad-puppy visage he has carried but to be fair to him, even in his good times, that’s the kind of body language he displays. It’s what he does on the field that has been a let down.
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On a pitch that had lost its sluggishness under the lights, England needed 181 runs from 25 overs with 7 wickets in hand to chase down a 287-run target. It was eminently doable, but Buttler wasn’t in mood to stitch out a partnership with Ben Stokes. Down the pitch he went for the big heave-ho, but sliced it down the throat of long-off. The ball from Adam Zampa hadn’t even turned that much. And he hung his head and trudged off. English Mediocrity was swirling in the Ahmedabad air. It can be interpreted the Buttler-faithful about how it would have been seen a shot of intent had he connected with the shot and such romance, but his ten-year ODI record in the middle-order in Indian conditions doesn’t lie.
It will be interesting to see if any pressure on his captaincy comes from former England players or even within the system from the selectors, but the general consensus seems to be that he will survive this mess as it’s the T20 world cup next year. “No I wont say captaincy has had an effect on my batting. I have enjoyed the responsibility in T20 and ODI before this,” he said at the end of the game. “I have played lots of cricket and IPL cricket in India, I know the conditions… I can’t put a finger on why I am not playing at my level.” The word “Frustrating” was used countless times in that media interaction.
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And it was Zampa who would increase that English frustration when he took down Stokes with the equation needing 117 from 90 balls. Stokes had added a 63-run hope-lifting partnership with Mooen Ali in just over 10 overs. Stokes had found his touch, biffing sixes and fours, and Mooen too was far more composed than he has been in this tournament.
That’s when Zampa intervened. Stokes was clearly edgy, as in a rush to go for the big hits. He jumped out too early second ball and Zampa dragged back the length and slid it flatter. Stokes went hard for the sweep next ball, which was actually turning down leg and ideal for the shot in some ways, but he ended up tamely shovelling it to Marcus Stonis at short fine-leg. And the bat slipped out of his hands. He spread his arms, looked at his gloved hands, punched the ground, and walked back, angry with himself. He would have known the game was over then for all purposes, and though the tail did wag and got it a lot closer, it was pretty much over when Stokes fell.Most Read
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Zampa was pretty chuffed with his performance. “As good as it has been in ODIs” and considering “I bowled a lot to the left-handed batsmen”. He deviated from his usual fizzy pace, and bowled it a lot slower than usual and it was commendable how he handled the soapy-wet ball under the lights.
However, Australia too would have reasons to worry from this win, as clearly they have played better than this. Their batting threatened to implode but they were rescued Cameron Green (47), Stoinis (35) and more importantly their No.10 batsman Zampa (29). They were 247 for 8 at one point but Zampa dragged them through to 286.
Zampa would talk about how he hasn’t batted in the nets even once in this world cup, and he kept swinging merrily and connecting. He was heartbroken when Australia didn’t select him for the Test series in India earlier this year. “I am still hopeful that I can play Test, but once I wasn’t selected for that series in India that I wanted to play, I went about preparing for this world cup.”He remains Australia’s big hope for the middle-overs control going ahead. Who does England have to invest their hope in?
