Cricket News, Jos Buttler Has Said it Was Wrong Question his Captaincy of England

jos Buttler has said it was wrong for people to question his captaincy of England's white-ball team during a miserable 50-over World Cup campaign. The captain said that despite more disappointing results since their return from India they are an exciting and improving side, and that he is hugely motivated to lead them through another key year.

On Thursday England were beaten in the final fixture of their tour of the West Indies, in the process losing the T20 series 3-2 to follow a 2-1 defeat in the one-day internationals. The white-ball team don't play again until May, just a brief time before they return to the Caribbean to guard their T20 World Cup title.

Asked if he at any point questioned his ability to lead the side, or felt results had given others the right to do as such, Buttler said: "Not really. I've had a few low moments, for sure. It was a huge disappointment in my career, that World Cup that's just gone. However, after you let the residue settle there's huge motivation and determination to have another crack and just continue onward. That desire still consumes emphatically.

Buttler said he would involve the festive period as an opportunity to ponder his leadership of the team throughout the course of recent months. "I think you're always trying to learn," he said. "It's important you learn and get better and do whatever it takes not to make the same mistakes. It's the same for my own game as a player, I want to just get endlessly better and I feel like I've still got higher levels to reach."

Including games as stand-in before his permanent appointment in June 2022, Buttler has now captained England 70 times. In the last two matches of the T20 series he did in this way, for the first time, from the outfield rather than behind the stumps. With Phil Salt, who has extensive wicketkeeping experience for Lancashire, Manchester Originals and in various franchise competitions, presently established in the side and Jonny Bairstow, England's Test wicketkeeper, in contention for a place in the World Cup squad, he has the option of giving up the gloves for great.

"I'll probably take a couple of days to consider that," Buttler said. "It's nice sometimes during the over to be nearer to the bowler - while you're keeping wicket you can always desolate and run back, yet it's just kind of [seen] from the outside that it's sluggish or it doesn't look right. Thus, I don't have any idea. I like the view as a wicketkeeper behind the stumps, to be able to see exactly what's happening, however I appreciate fielding as well. I really have no huge preference either way at the moment

Despite losing both the T20 and ODI series, Buttler insists the Caribbean tour was a success. “Obviously there’s been lots of ups and downs throughout the year but it’s always important to keep looking forward and that’s what we wanted to do at the start of this series,” he said.

“There’s lots to look forward to next year with the World Cup and I thought we played some really good cricket for the majority of the series.

“We all wanted to win the series and it’s hard to say when you’ve lost, but I think we’ve found out some good things. Obviously some players have stood up and done really well. We’ve had five games out here in the Caribbean and had a really good look at what conditions will be like for the World Cup only six months away. So yeah, it’s been a good series.”

Rovman Powell, West Indies captain, said England were definitely capable of retaining the World Cup, but while admitting their batters had dominated the third and fourth games of the series - "Two games back-to-back England beat us badly as a bowling bunch … they scored 70 in the powerplay, totally thought of us off" - he felt they had a collective weakness. "We realized something with the English batters: when you put them on a decent wicket they are excellent, but when a wicket starts [to] assist the bowlers it becomes a little bit tricky."

Thursday's final game featured the first significant utilization of the stopclock right now being trialed in international white-ball cricket, with England getting two warnings including one for taking more than 90 seconds rather than the mandated maximum of 60 to prepare for their penultimate over. A third infraction would have prompted five runs being deducted from their score. "I realized you get two warnings, so I wasn't really too bothered about being told I was delayed at that point," Buttler said. "Under tension you sometimes need to take a little bit of extra time