Buttler: ‘I’ve not been capable of lead with my very own performances’

“It’s not a lack of talent,” Buttler mentioned. “[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 extremely good group [who have] finished a number of actually good issues within the current previous in white-ball cricket, 50-over cricket. We acquired on the airplane with excessive hopes and a number of confidence and perception that we are able to problem for the title. To be sat right here now with the three weeks which have been is a shock – it is a shock to everybody.

“I’ll walk back in the dressing room after this [press conference] 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.”

Buttler has managed 95 runs in 5 innings on this match with just one rating above 20. “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,” he mentioned. “I’ve been a long way short of my best. As a leader, you want to lead through your own performance and I’ve not been able to do that.”

On his efficiency as captain, Buttler mentioned: “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 and as a captain, and first and foremost, as a player.” Asked if he thought of himself the best man to steer England sooner or later, he mentioned: “Yes.”

England’s preparation for this World Cup has been markedly completely different to 4 years in the past: they performed 88 ODIs between the 2015 and 2019 World Cups in comparison with simply 42 within the 2019-23 cycle, and have hardly ever been at full power in bilateral collection. But Buttler insisted: “I don’t think there’s any blame elsewhere apart from ourselves.”

He mentioned: “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.”

And Buttler pushed again once more the concept that England had been complacent heading into the World Cup, referring again to a remark he made on the eve of the match which has proved prescient – although not in the best way he meant. “In any sport, you can’t protect anything or rely on the past; you have to go and create something new every time,” he mentioned.

“We know that as players, we touch on experience and things – having banked stuff before – but something we spoke about a lot as a team [was] that you have to go and create it again. You can’t rest of your laurels or try and protect something; try and protect an image, or protect something as a team.