It was there, in Ahmedabad, that Buttler explained in some detail the thought behind a phrase that has come to haunt England’s World Cup campaign: “We’re not defending anything,” Buttler said. “It’s probably the word I don’t like: I want us to attack, so I don’t like the word ‘defending’.” It has aged like milk.
Even with eight survivors from the squad that won the 2019 title, he was wary of describing the team as defending champions. “You’re can’t recreate something, or hold onto it forever,” Buttler said. “You’ve given that trophy back now. It’s done. It’s about trying to create something new.”
Three weeks and a day later, it was a very different Buttler sitting in the press conference room at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium. He looked almost hollow, trying to process how a team with so much ability and experience finds itself on the brink of elimination after a fourth heavy defeat in five group games.
“To be sat here now with the three weeks that have been is a shock,” he said. “I’ll walk back into 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’s the position we’re in.”
Buttler was insistent that complacency had not been a problem, referring back to Ahmedabad: “Something we spoke about a lot as a team [was that] you have to go and create it again… that’s why, at the very beginning of the tournament, I said we weren’t here to try and defend our title; [that] we’re here to start something new and try and win something.”
The next two weeks will be a gauge of England’s pride and their professionalism: in theory, things can only get better; in practice, they could get seriously ugly.
In India, by his own admission. Buttler has been “a long way short” of his best. He made 43 off 42 against New Zealand, with a brace of sixes, but has been a shadow of himself since. He has managed scores of 20, 9, 15 and 8 and a trend has emerged in his dismissals: three times out of five, he has been caught behind flashing at length balls on a sixth-stump line.
England flew to Lucknow on Friday lunchtime and will train on Saturday afternoon before playing India on Sunday. The next two weeks will be a gauge of England’s pride and their professionalism: in theory, things can only get better; in practice, they could get seriously ugly.
These four games will be a test of Buttler’s leadership, and whether he can get a tune out of players who are yet to hit a single note. Whatever happens, Buttler will be the favourite to lead them into next year’s T20 World Cup – but what comes after that is anyone’s guess.