Jos Buttler has insisted “it is not s— or bust,” for England ahead of four days that will decide whether they stay or go home.
Buttler was not due to fulfil media duties on Tuesday. Liam Livingstone was lined up to speak but Buttler took it upon himself to show leadership and front up with his team on the edge of elimination.
Buttler is right in that England cannot just go out swinging. They have to beat Oman and Namibia first and reach five points otherwise net run rate is irrelevant. A 40-50 win in both games is very achievable and probably enough to overhaul Scotland as long as Australia play their part and beat them in the final game of Group B on Saturday night even though they may well rest a few of their bowlers.
England could easily lose sight of the result and toss away wickets in the desperation of bosting run rate, so focused heads will be needed against Oman on Thursday and then Namibia 48 hours later.
Buttler was cheerful and much more laid back than when he spoke before the opening game of the World Cup. His charm offensive was an attempt to project calm despite the enormous pressure on him and head coach Matthew Mott.
Chest thumping in public does not come naturally to Buttler and he lacks the dead eyed straight talking of Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes, who in similar situations often fire back at critics. Instead Buttler was unflustered and smiling, although underneath he must be feeling the strain.
“I don’t think it’s s— or bust quite yet. I think it’s quite clear what we need to do and how we need to play. First and foremost, we need to win the game against Oman to have any chance going forward into the next one. So we have to earn the right to try and win the game. And if we can get ourselves in a position to affect our net run-rate, obviously that’s what we need to do,” said Buttler.
“There’s not really any change of message for the way we want to play our cricket. We always talk about trying to understand the situation of the game. What does the team need from you as an individual? What does the game require? And the situation we find ourselves in is very clear that we’ve got a really exciting squad of players and it’s obviously very easy to focus on the bat when people talk about net run-rate but we’ve got wicket-taking options with the ball which obviously can be vital in this kind of situation as well.”
England trained at the mothballed Antigua Recreation Ground on Tuesday, nestled in the tight, pulsating streets of the island’s capital, St John’s, and dripping with the history of Brian Lara’s world record scores of 375 and 400. The barbed wire high wall of the colonial era St John’s prison overlooking the ground where Viv Richards’s father was warden, was just a short range hit away for the England players netting in the middle.
The ground was replaced in 2007 by the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, built with Chinese government money and nestled in the hard-to-access middle of the island, where England will play on Thursday. The Old Rec encouraged walk ups in the middle of town but the crowd is likely to be small at the Sir Vivian Richards stadium with few England fans here and it being a midweek day game.
It is unlikely England will change much. Their top six will remain the same, apart from the option to use Moeen Ali as a floating presence as left-hander, and Buttler keep the gloves despite being penalised for slow over rate against Australia because he had to sprint to the other end of the field to gee up bowlers mid over. The bowling needs refreshing however with Reece Toley and Sam Curran left arm options that will be important on an open ground where strong crosswinds mean one smaller boundary needs protecting.
The temptation for management in bad times is to stick with experienced players believing their track record of success makes them more likely to pull off a comeback. At the 50 over World Cup, England stuck with the old timers and it failed.
It feels like they will make the same move again. “We see it as a challenge, the situation we find ourselves in. we’re not daunted by it,” said Buttler. “We see it as an exciting opportunity to do something special if we get it right. Going into the latter stages that would give us tremendous confidence.”