New Delhi: Former England cricketer Mark Butcher believes the Jos Buttler-led side just don’t have enough experience of playing 50-over matches and be termed as serious contenders to win the upcoming Champions Trophy, starting from February 19.
Since the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup, England have won just four out of 14 ODIs and recently faced a 0-3 series sweep in India in what was Brendon McCullum’s first series as the white-ball head coach. In the Champions Trophy, England will face Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa in its league matches – the teams who defeated them in the 2023 ODI World Cup group stage.
“The first thing that sprung to my mind during the first two ODIs was just how naive most of our cricket is in the 50-over format. I thought ‘why might that be?’. It’s because we don’t play any. There is a world of difference in terms of the tempo that the game needs to continuously be played at.”
“I don’t mean that the tempo is a rigid graph that only goes up, the tempo needs to fluctuate in 50-over cricket in a way that it doesn’t need to in 20-over cricket. Having that skill and nous and game awareness to know when to put the foot down and when to ease off a little but, when to sit in and when to go hard, is something that only comes with playing lots of it.”
“I remember back in the 90s when England would play three Texaco Trophy matches during the course of the summer, the sum total of England’s 50-over cricket would be three to six matches per summer. They’d be playing against Indian sides, or West Indian sides or Australian sides.”
“The difference in number of caps between them and our players was three times more on the other team. We’re kind of back in that situation now whereby the India players will out number the number of caps of even someone like Jos Buttler for example, by at least two to one or three to one,” said Butcher on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast.
In the 0-3 ODI series defeat England suffered in India, pacer Gus Atkinson conceded 139 runs in the two matches he played. Atkinson was handed an ODI debut in 2023, after playing just two List A games. Butcher felt the pacer will become better with time in 50-over cricket, but may not go on to make an impact in the Champions Trophy.
“A lot of our guys will be a lot better for the run. Gus Atkinson has had a pretty chastening trip and that’s not a bad thing. He’s basically found the game far too easy up to this point and has run into the first road block.”
“Being a very talented boy and somebody who has the hunger and desire to be the very best, he will be better for the experience of a flogging in India. But if you’re talking about winning a Champions Trophy in a couple of weeks’ time, it’s not likely is it?”
“That our team and the make-up of it and the experience of it is going to have the skill and the nous and the know-how to win what is a very difficult form of cricket, 50-over cricket. It requires more than just putting your foot to the floor and keeping it there,” he concluded.
(IANS)
