England captain Jos Buttler said he is looking forward to some time away from cricket after an emotional loss to India in the T20 World Cup semi-final at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Thursday. India outplayed the defending champions in all three departments in the rematch of last edition’s semi-final. They beat England by 68 runs to book their date against South Africa for the final on Saturday.
Buttler said 145-150 would have been a good total to chase but India got way too many. “Yeah, disappointing. I think we were outplayed by India. They fully deserved the victory. So, yeah, I thought they had an above-par score. I was hoping to restrict them to 145 – 150, probably on that pitch. It was always going to be a tough chase from there,” the England captain told reporters in Guyana.
India captain Rohit Sharma (57 off 39), Suryakumar Yadav (47 off 36), and Hardik Pandya (23 off 13) battled a slow pitch that offered turn to the spinners to put up 171/5 on the board after being asked to bat. The total proved to be more than enough as Indian bowlers led by Kuldeep Yadav (3/19) and Axar Patel (3/23) bowled England out for 103 in 16.4 overs to avenge the Adelaide loss a couple of years ago in grand style.
England’s next white-ball assignment is three T20Is and five ODIs at home against Australia in September. Buttler said he wants to enjoy the break before thinking anything about the future. “To be honest, I’m just looking forward to some time away from the game. I think, as I sit here, emotional after a loss, I don’t need to dive too deep into it right now. I just look forward to some space from the game,” he said when asked about his thoughts on captaincy.
The England keeper-batter, who was dismissed by Axar Patel for 23, said there won’t be wholesome changes in England’s T20I side as the management with the way they have played in this World Cup.
“No, I think I look back to Leeds when we all met up. I think everyone has made progress and we’ve played well and not well enough, but I think the stuff that we’ve been doing behind the scenes, the way we’ve prepared, the way we’ve trained, the way we’ve played in patches has been really good. And there’s a lot of talent in the team. And yes, we came up against a top team today in these conditions,” he said.
Buttler’s decision to bowl first on a slow pitch was criticised, but he was not ready to accept that it was one of the reasons for their loss.
“Not at the toss. I don’t think that was the difference between the two sides. We thought long and hard about selection, about whether we kept the same balance that we’d been playing with that had been working well, or did we need four seamers on that particular wicket. I think that was a really tough call that we made and we ended up sticking with what we had. I think India played a really good game of cricket, whatever team or whatever happened at the toss – they were going to be a tough team to beat and we had to be at our best if we were going to win the game and we were short of our best today.”
