Follow UsJos Buttler said England would have to adapt to all kinds of conditions during the 2023 World Cup, but would still try to play the game “at the higher level”. The defending champions, who are known for their aggressive brand of cricket, will start their campaign against New Zealand on Thursday (October 5) in Ahmedabad before traveling to Dharamsala to take on Bangladesh.
They are also scheduled to play a match in Delhi and Lucknow, known to be spin-friendly tracks. At the same time, the venues like Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Ahmedabad are going to be suitable for their brand of cricket.
“I think the big skill in it, there'll be lots of different wickets we'll play on around the country. There can be some of the best batting wickets in the world here. Some of them can be a little bit on the slower side, some can spin,” said Buttler.
“Reading the conditions quickly will be a big part of the game. But we will always try and adapt our style of attacking cricket to whatever surfaces we're playing on. I think you've got to adapt and play differently. But we'll always, whatever the sort of game is, we'll try and play at the higher level of that.”
Talking about the importance of the toss in these conditions, Buttler said: “I think certainly in some games winning the toss will be advantageous. Dew can be a big factor at certain times in India. I think the format is generally long enough that the toss hopefully won't make the deciding factor in the game. I think you have to play good cricket to win the match.”
Buttler and most of the other England players have played a lot of cricket in India, thanks to the Indian Premier League. The 33-year-old said it gives them a lot of knowledge about the venues, but that also holds true for the players from other countries. “I think it gives us a lot of familiarity with the venues and the travel around India, the hotels you stay in and those kinds of things. So we know what to expect.
“Obviously, we're playing 50-over cricket, not 20-over cricket as you would in the IPL. And lots of the other teams are in a similar position with that. Many players from all around the world come here and experience the IPL. So, I believe that's an advantage for most teams to have played quite a bit of cricket in India.”
So, does he have any idea about how the Ahmedabad surface is going to behave on Thursday? “I've played a few times in T20 cricket and there's different types of soil, I think, on the square. You know, some of them can be fantastic batting wickets and the ball, I think, in the recent past, in the IPL season just gone, did swing around a little bit,” said Buttler.
“I feel like it's not a bad venue for just good cricket. I think there's value as a batter. If you bowl well, there can be early movement, especially. So, we'll see how that plays out in 50-over cricket compared to T20 cricket, but look at the Gujarat team that do so well here. Got a very strong pace attack, which shows it's not all about spin in India.”
England won their first World Cup in 2019 but hasn’t played a lot of ODIs since then. In fact, they have played only 42 ODIs in this period, which is 25 less than India. There have been a couple of T20 World Cups in between, and even the number of franchise-based T20 leagues has gone up.
“I think T20 has had a huge effect on all cricket. The way people can play Test cricket now, the shots that batters are prepared to play in any format of the game. And absolutely, the T20 skills drip into the ODI cricket,” added Buttler, who doesn’t want his team to take added pressure just because they won the last edition.
“I think I've spoken quite a bit about not feeling like we're defending anything. We're here very much in the same position now as every other team. We're here to try and win the World Cup. We look forward to what's going to be a great tournament. We're all starting in the same place and have big dreams and ambitions of going all the way.”