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.
