Follow UsIn 2019 when England emerged as the World Champions, the word in the air was the legacy they would leave behind. It was perceived as the start of a new era in English cricket, but the reality has changed. While England have taken a leap of faith in Test and T20I cricket, their ODI cricket has degraded, and as a result, they have found themselves at the penultimate position on the ICC Cricket World Cup points table, virtually out of contention for a spot in the semi-finals.
"It's not a lack of talent," England skipper Jos Buttler said in the post-match press conference after England suffered a demoralizing loss to Sri Lanka in Bengaluru. "[We have] a lot of experienced guys who are fantastic cricketers. So absolutely, it's a huge frustration. This tournament's gone nowhere near the way we wanted to; it's been a huge disappointment. If there was one golden egg that we were missing, then you'd hope to see that. But there is no secret, I don't think.
"We're a really good team [who have] done a lot of really good things in the recent past in white-ball cricket, 50-over cricket. We got on the plane with high hopes and a lot of confidence and belief that we can challenge for the title. To be sat here now with the three weeks that have been is a shock - it's a shock to everyone.
"I'll walk back in the dressing room after this and look at the players sat there, and think: 'How have we found ourselves in this position with the talent and the skill that's in the room?' But it is the position we're in; it's the reality of what's happened over the last three weeks and that's a huge low point."
So abysmal is Buttler’s own performance is that his average of 19 is 45th among 53 Top six batters who have batted at least four times in this World Cup. That’s an ironic fall for grace for someone who looked in pretty decent touch in the lead-up to the World Cup: in 10 innings in 2023 prior to the World Cup, Buttler averaged 60.88 while striking at 110.48.
"There's no one else who can score your own runs or take your own wickets, and that comes from the start - from the captain at the front. I've been a long way short of my best. As a leader, you want to lead through your own performance, and I've been unable to do that.
"You're always questioning, as captain, how you can get the best out of players; how you can get the team moving in the right direction. I certainly have a lot of confidence and belief in myself as a leader as a captain, and first and foremost, as a player.
Was the schedule to be blamed for it? ODI cricket has been downgraded in England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) priorities since they introduced The Hundred. But Buttler refused to blame any extraneous factors.
"I don't think there's any blame elsewhere apart from ourselves. The schedules are the schedules, and we've got a lot of things in our favour: we've got fantastic support from the coaches within the environment; we get fantastic support from our fans as a country, and we've let them all down. It's been a really tough few weeks, incredibly disappointing - a shock to perform the way we have with the team that we do have."