Jos Buttler has challenged his players not to lose their self-belief after they fell victim to one of the great World Cup upsets, losing against Afghanistan by 69 runs in Delhi, left their dreams of defending the trophy looking increasingly fanciful.
Buttler admitted his side were “outplayed”. After also losing their opening game against New Zealand, England have banked just a single victory from their first three matches. From here they are likely to need five wins from their six remaining group-stage fixtures if they are to stand a chance of reaching the semi-finals.
“It’s a big setback,” Buttler said. “Before the tournament started we had a different idea of how the first three games would pan out. We’ve got to show a lot of character, a lot of resilience within the team and most of all a lot of belief. There are a lot of excellent players in there and we haven’t played well enough today, but we must keep that belief.”
Buttler admitted he had completely misread the pitch and the conditions, choosing to chase after winning the toss, and opting to retain the extra seamer he picked for the victory against Bangladesh, after watching India, batting second and with a similar setup, beat Afghanistan in the same venue on Wednesday.
“Obviously India went with the extra seamer as well and we thought the wicket would play similarly and maybe the dew would come in in the second half,” he said. “The conditions didn’t play quite as we thought they would … The wicket didn’t play exactly how we thought it would play, and the dew didn’t come in as much as we thought as well.”
Buttler admitted that Chris Woakes, who was again expensive, “hasn’t bowled at the level we know he is capable of”, and that his team gave up “a few too many easy boundaries”, but refused to be drawn on how the performance will influence future selection. “We’ll let tonight sink in and work out where we need to go from there,” he said.
Jonathan Trott, the former England batter who now coaches Afghanistan, said he hoped the result would help his team to recalibrate their ambitions. “I think it’s important the guys take stock and realise what they can achieve and the level of team that they can put under pressure and compete with,” he said.
“There’s a lot of confidence that will hopefully come from this when competing against the bigger nations and it’ll have a knock-on effect in all the other games, not only in this World Cup but for the future as well.”
