Mott’s World Cup warning for Buttler’s failing white-ball stars
MATTHEW MOTT has told England’s beleaguered white-ball team that ‘no one has a mortgage on a spot’ as the countdown begins to October’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
Jos Buttler’s side completed a miserable summer when they lost the deciding T20 against South Africa on Sunday, leaving them without a series win in four tries since Eoin Morgan’s retirement. Pressure is mounting on opener Jason Roy, with both Phil Salt and Harry Brook waiting in the wings. And Mott admitted it was not too late to make changes before the World Cup, with 10 T20s to play first — seven in Pakistan and three in Australia. Referring to Roy, England’s white-ball coach said: ‘When you’ve been a great player and you’ve delivered great things on a big stage, i think you deserve a bit of loyalty.
‘But at certain times, hard decisions need to be made and young players come in and add energy. Those two players (Salt and Brook) are chomping at the bit for a game. it’s about making good decisions at the right times. No one in the team has a mortgage on a spot.’
Mott also suggested the World Cup will be ‘a stretch’ for Jofra Archer, who is recovering from a stress fracture of the back, but said Mark Wood, who is still on the mend from elbow surgery, was ‘probably closer’.
But he said England first had to solve a deeper malaise after 12 white-ball matches in which their attacking instinct, honed during seven and a half years under Morgan, gave way to what Buttler called ‘timidness’.
‘What needs to happen in the short term is to be really honest about where the group is at,’ said Mott. ‘Whenever you lose a great leader, there’s a void there. ‘That can create space for other leaders to step up and i think we haven’t seen that yet. We want to build confidence back up, which is clearly lacking at the moment.’