Jos Buttler opens up after England’s defeat against New Zealand

Defending champions England suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the season opener of the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023. The batters showed a lot of intent but other than Joe Root and skipper Jos Buttler, no one could take advantage of the surface that was tailor-made for the batters to succeed. They ended up scoring 282 runs, which was unfortunately not enough as the Black Caps chased it down pretty easily, winning the match by nine wickets.

On the other hand, all-rounder Ben Stokes missed the opening clash as the cricketer is currently recovering from an injury. Speaking after the game, Buttler clarified that he has got a fantastic team, where every cricketer can contribute and thus, they are not dependent much on just one player. He lauded Stokes for his abilities but backed his teammates to get better in the coming games.

“I think Ben’s a top player but we’ve got many top players. I think everyone in the team got into double figures and we didn’t have enough guys go on and make telling contributions. It’s not just Ben who is able to score runs in our team. We’ve got brilliant players right throughout the squad,” Buttler was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Just like batters, the bowlers too failed to make a mark in the last match. Bowling under lights wasn’t an easy task in Ahmedabad but most of the bowlers looked average and that’s a bit concerning. In the absence of Jofra Archer, Mark Wood was expected to get the job done but the ace pacer leaked 55 runs in just five overs, which is not a good sign.

Notably, England will be taking on Bangladesh in their next match and a few changes are expected. Ben Stokes is expected to make a comeback while Reece Topley, who was sensational in the practice games may come in as well. They are likely to replace Harry Brook and Chris Woakes, respectively.