Buttler: A bad day but we’ll fight on

JOS BUTTLER admitted England will not progress as a team until they find a way to halt their batting collapses, after India seized control of the third Test in Nottingham. England slipped from 54 without loss to 161 all out in the space of an elongated afternoon session, and face an almost impossible task to save the game. And that left Buttler, who topscored with 39, to explain why a side full of talent, especially in the middle order, cannot shake their tendency to lose wickets in clusters. ‘It’s not mentally easy,’ he said. ‘People are saying it’s been happening too often, which it has. We need to improve. To get where we want to go, we have to eradicate these collapses. ‘It’s very disappointing. We had a really good start to the day, picking up those early wickets, then reaching 50 without loss. It’s important we recognise why it happened and improve that. It comes down to the guys working hard and being disciplined. ‘We’ve played some very good cricket in this series. We’re 2-0 up. We’ve had a very bad day, but we’ll keep fighting. We have to talk about it, but there’s a game going on, and no one’s going to throw in the towel.’ Hardik Pandya, who took a career-best five for 28 in six overs, said England’s tendency to implode hadn’t gone unnoticed in the Indian dressing-room. ‘They have a few important players, but if you get them out they get into trouble,’ he said. ‘They are all capable, but they have problems, and we would like to take them as many times as we can get them.’