Jos has no fears for World Cup bid
JOS Buttler sees plenty of reasons for optimism ahead of England’s defence of their World Cup crown in India later this year, despite losing another ODI series.
Twin defeats against South Africa in Bloemfontein meant England’s 59-run victory in Kimberley on Wednesday was a mere consolation, with the 50-over world champions now winless in their last four series.
While there have been caveats during that run, with several stars absent against the Proteas, there were some standout performances in the series as Jason Roy, Dawid Malan and Buttler all made hundreds.
Olly Stone persistently threatened in the middle overs and fellow quick bowler Jofra Archer is back after 22 months away and encouragingly took a career-best six for 40 at the Diamond Oval in the series finale.
While Buttler reflected ruefully on chucking away a winning position in the opening match, he feels England are shaping up well for the World Cup in the autumn.
“There are lots of things to be really pleased about and some players are still to come back,” said Buttler, whose side travel to Bangladesh next month for a limited-overs series.
“Recent results aside, it’s still a healthy picture. We’ve played some brilliant cricket and we should be disappointed that we didn’t win the series. The position we were in in the first ODI – we should go on and win that game.
“But in terms of things you’re looking to get together and build ahead of a World Cup, I think we ticked a lot of boxes. There is that big-picture view as well.”
Archer’s performance in just his second match for England since making his comeback impressed Buttler, with the fast bowler making breakthroughs at critical moments of the game.
The decisive moment came when he prised out Heinrich Klaasen – who put on 85 in 54 balls with Wayne Parnell to leave South Africa needing 69 off the last 63 deliveries – with the hosts then subsiding.
“Jofra’s performance was outstanding,” said England’s whiteball captain. “Every time you turned to him to try and take a wicket, he managed to do that.
“The game was probably in the balance there during the partnership with Klaasen and Parnell so for Jofra to come back and pick up that wicket straight away was fantastic.”
Meanwhile, England have named leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed in their white-ball squads for the first time ahead of the tour of Bangladesh.
The 18-year-old became England’s youngest men’s Test cricketer when he lined up against Pakistan in Karachi in December and marked the occasion by taking a five-wicket haul.
The Leicestershire spinner had played just three first-class matches before making his Test debut, but has slightly more experience in white-ball cricket having played 19 T20 matches and seven List A games for his county.
Lancashire fast bowler Saqib Mahmood has been included in the ODI squad for the first time since the back stress fracture he suffered in May.
The 25-year-old is currently with the England Lions in Sri Lanka, but has not bowled so far during the red-ball series.