There have been books, documentaries and, quite probably, post-doctoral theses published about the four years England’s men spent preparing for the 2019 World Cup. Their six-week buildup to this year’s tournament is a very different prospect indeed, as the white-ball captain, Jos Buttler, has admitted.
“The landscape has changed quite a lot in that time,” said Buttler, speaking on the eve of England’s Twenty20 series against New Zealand. This, after all, is the first time he has pulled on an England shirt since March, against Bangladesh. “It’s not perfect by any means, the way you’d probably prepare for big tournaments. But I think the T20 World Cup showed that you can do it.” That would be last year’s tournament – the one England won.
Wednesday’s evening T20 at the Riverside is the first of four between the sides, a starter course to the four one-day internationals that follow. While England’s squad includes eight different players from the 50-over version, no one is pretending that this is anything other than the first step in a journey to 5 October, when the 2019 World Cup finalists meet each other again in this year’s curtain-raiser.
Between now and then, three more home ODIs against Ireland and two warm-up games in India will make for 13 white-ball matches in five weeks. The knock-on effect of pandemic postponements has added to the squeezed schedule, which gives England’s white-ball captain plenty of opportunities to try out his combinations.
It also means England need to be mindful of overwork and injury, said Buttler. “It’ll be a long tournament, a lot of time in India and a lot of travelling as well so we must be careful over the next month the way we manage people.” It would, after all, be embarrassing to persuade Ben Stokes back from his ODI retirement only to break him.
England’s Test captain has returned to the 50-over side as a batter rather than an all-rounder – “I’m very comfortable with that, Ben’s batting is exceptional,” said Buttler – and so much more besides. “He makes people feel a foot taller when he’s in the team with you, and he pushes standards as well.” Mark Wood, in peak form, will be the most gingerly handled of all. “He’s like your best racehorse, isn’t he?” said Buttler.
While Wood will be absent from the T20 series, Harry Brook, who could find no place in a provisional World Cup 15 bursting with power hitters, will doubtless make a statement. Buttler insists England’s rising star has no point to prove – but Brook can, at least, engender second thoughts, if only to secure his place on the plane to India as one of three travelling reserves.
England Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Ben Duckett, Dawid Malan, Harry Brook, Will Jacks, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood, Brydon Carse, Chris Jordan.
New Zealand Finn Allen, Devon Conway, Mark Chapman, Darryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee, Adam Milne.
The much-discussed pace prodigy Gus Atkinson, picked for both squads, is unlikely to make his England debut at the Riverside after doing more than his share to secure Oval Invincibles their first men’s title in the Hundred. “He’s one we want to look after very much,” said Buttler, who led Manchester Originals against Invincibles in the final on Sunday.
Having faced some of Atkinson’s fastest deliveries this summer the England captain admits to being very happy to now be playing on the same team. The Hundred may already have proved a boon to England’s white-ball selection efforts. Buttler believes its television profile encourages people to “step up and perform”, and ensures those performances aren’t missed.
The prospect of immediate revenge against Jimmy Neesham, whose performance helped deny Originals on Sunday, has been scotched, with the all-rounder heading back to New Zealand for the birth of his first child. Kane Williamson, meanwhile, is travelling with the New Zealand squad as he attempts to prove his fitness after April’s anterior cruciate ligament injury in time for a World Cup selection deadline of 28 September.
“It’s still a long way away and he’s doing everything he can to give himself the best chance,” said New Zealand’s T20 captain, Tim Southee.
