Ahmedabad: England skipper Jos Buttler admitted his team were outplayed by India in the three-match ODI series which concluded with a 142-run defeat for the visitors at Narendra Modi Stadium here on Wednesday.
England batters heavily struggled against spin throughout their tour of India, which included a 1-4 defeat in the five-game T20I series and will need to make quick changes to their approach ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy set to kick off in Pakistan on February 19.
“Similar to the whole tour, we were outplayed by a fantastic team. Our approach is the right one, it’s just that we haven’t executed well. They put a great score on the board. Shubman played a great innings. We got off to a great start again but it’s a familiar story for us. We need to find a way to bat for longer. We were up against a really good side that keeps challenging us,” said Buttler in the post-game presentation.
The England batters heavily struggled throughout the three-game series with opener Ben Duckett and veteran Joe Root, who returned to the ODI side for the first time since the 2023 World Cup, being the only two English batters to accumulate three-digit scores across the three innings. Many will question the inconsistency on display by their middle-order which struggled against spin on more than one occasion.
England are in Group B in the Champions Trophy and will hope to turn things around before February 22 which is when they will play rivals Australia in their opening encounter in Lahore. Post that, Brendon McCullum’s side will take on Afghanistan and South Africa on February 26 and March 1 respectively to close out the group stages. They will now move to Pakistan in the next few days and hope their fortune will also change.
(IANS)
