Posted by Jos Buttler fell back on words like ‘learning’ and ‘unit’ in his latest post-match interview, which is never a good sign. These sorts of clichés are the sign of a man who knows a few things are wrong but doesn’t really want to talk about them right now, thank you very much.
To be fair to Buttler, he didn’t say ‘learning curve’ to mean ‘lesson’ so he’s left himself room for manoeuvre. Clearly he feels that things could get worse – which must be a good thing, right?
The ‘unit’ was a pretty classic one though.
“The learning is the way that we want to play our cricket,” he began, meaninglessly. “The style of cricket we want to play is the right one but we haven’t been able to do it well enough. As players, individually, we need to see what we need to do better to play better as a unit.”
So where do England stand as they head into the Champions Trophy? Let’s paint a picture out of questions…
1. Can anyone play spin?
England were bowled out in all three matches of this one-day international series against India. Ravindra Jadeja took six wickets at 10.16 and conceded 3.21 an over. Axar Patel conceded 4.75 runs an over. Kuldeep Yadav went at 5.15 an over.
To contextualise that, Liam Livingstone was the only England spinner to concede less than a run a ball – and he only barely managed it while taking one wicket for 114 runs.
This comes hot on the heels of shipping 14 wickets to Varun Chakravarthy in 18 overs during the T20 series.
2. Can anyone hang around for, say, an hour?
Not wholly unrelated to the one above, this one. The top four scores of the series were all delivered by India batters. After a year off ODIs, England have brought Joe Root back to provide a bit of glue – but even he’s been more Pritt Stick than Loctite. He did at least manage one innings longer than 70 balls. No-one else did.
3. How many right-arm seam bowlers is the correct number of right-arm seam bowlers?
This will vary from pitch to pitch, but our suspicion is the answer is either (a) ‘one less than England have picked’, or (b) ‘the number that England have picked, but why have they only picked four bowlers’.
4. Should Jos Buttler bat at number five?
Statistically speaking, Buttler’s strongest batting position is number four, where he averages 68.10 from 14 innings and has scored 167.73 runs per hundred balls. Those stats do however mask the fact that much of that is down to 250 unbeaten runs in a couple of innings against the Netherlands in 2022.
As for the other big innings in that position – well, that’s where it gets interesting. These were days where England got off to a flyer and then figured they may as well cut straight to the Buttler sloggery at the fall of the second wicket. In 2015, against Pakistan, 194-2 in the 36th over became 355-5 after our man larruped 116* off 52 balls. His next knock in that spot, against South Africa a few months later, also resulted in a hundred. This one was rather different in that he arrived in the 18th over, but being as England already had 130 on the board by that point, the general feeling was that the pitch that day was looking like a bit of a flatty.
Buttler’s next-best slot, stats-wise, is actually number seven, where he averages 40.08 and scores 117.45 runs per 100 balls. This is because it is essentially the same job: punishing bowlers as much as possible. This is what England’s captain has always done best and, quite honestly, still does best.
Walking out at 77-3, as he did at the start of this series? That’s not his thing and – much as he’s 34 now and captain and wants to take responsibility and all that – it will never really be his thing. By batting at five – in this team of skippy shotmakers, in particular – he is missing the whole point of himself.
5. How many Jos Buttlers do you need in one middle-order?
If that sounds like Buttler should drop down to, say, number six, are we certain that he’d routinely arrive at the right time if that meant coming in after Liam Livingstone? The all-rounder’s only ODI hundred came at number five, so it’s not necessarily the worst option, but he doesn’t feel like what you’d call ‘a banker’.
But in much the same way, how much does Livingstone really benefit from coming in after Buttler. The one time this series he was dropped off at roughly the right place for ‘finishing’ (219-4 in the 39th over), he made 41 off 32 balls and was out in the final over. When he came in at 170-5 in the 33rd over and 154-5 in the 25th, he did nothing.
Buttler and Livingstone seem like two players suited to the same role. But of course that isn’t quite the full story because…
6. Who is England’s second spinner?
Feel free to get AI to mash together an unnerving digital composite face that’s two-parts Livingstone to one part Root. England have just toured India with one spin bowler they’d be willing to pick, plus Rehan Ahmed on work experience – and the latter isn’t in the Champions Trophy squad.
The problem with Livingstone is that he is most of a bowler without quite being a full one, and he’s not trusted to bat higher than number six when England already have one of those (which then pushes Buttler up a spot).
As a top five batter, Livingstone’s bowling would become a handy extra option. As a genuine fifth bowler, his batting would add depth to the order. But England don’t seem to trust him to do either of those things. They pick him for neither batting nor bowling yet ask him to do both. Depending who else is selected, that leaves the team short of either top order batting or frontline bowling and means other people have to fill awkward gaps with whatever they find in their pockets.
7. Is Buttler going to be stripped of the captaincy?
It’s easy to shrug at the Champions Trophy, but this is a thing that could happen in the next fortnight. If England’s tournament turns into a debacle, it’ll be three crap tournaments on the bounce for Buttler and with only three matches in the group stages, it wouldn’t take much for a debacle to unfold.
In July, we suggested that Buttler should become England’s white ball coach on the basis that it would probably accelerate his deposal. That’s no longer necessary because if England balls-up another tournament, he becomes the common thread of up-ballsery linking three successive failures.
Conversely… it might all work out. England didn’t play much 50-over cricket last year and playing India in India will tend to highlight rust. Maybe things aren’t so bad. The whole Champions Trophy is only five matches long and England have some players, so a surprise hot streak wouldn’t even have to last that long.
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