England lost the final one-day international against Bangladesh on Monday, but they gained some valuable information about their players. Jos Buttler chose to use the opportunity to experiment, presented by a dead rubber with the series won.
The teenage leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed bowled a full allocation of 10 overs on his white-ball debut, taking a wicket with his last ball, and Sam Curran was bumped up the batting order to five, where he scored 23 off 49 deliveries, as England rolled the dice, but it resulted in defeat by 50 runs.
“We changed a few things today and gave opportunities to people in different ways,” Buttler said. “It is the last ODI we play until September so, especially in these conditions, it was a chance to gather as much information as we possibly can and expose people to different situations. If we lost the game then so be it, but I believed we had a team that could have won it.”
There had been suggestions before the series that Curran would bat in the top six at least once. “We’re blessed with a lot of all-rounders and I felt like today was a good chance to use them more,” Buttler said. “I see huge potential in Sam’s batting and today there was an opportunity for him to bat higher up the order.”
Giving Ahmed 10 overs meant limiting the senior leg-spinner Adil Rashid to only five. “I’ve got no regrets at all,” Buttler said. “We know what a class performer Adil is. It made sense to give Rehan the opportunity to bowl to good players and put him under a bit of pressure.
“He doesn’t lack confidence, he’s very trusting in his ability, which is fantastic for a young guy. He was willing to bowl to very aggressive fields and challenge himself, which is a great sign moving forward. For a guy on debut, he handled himself brilliantly well.”
Shakib Al Hasan was the main man for Bangladesh, scoring 75 off 71 deliveries to haul his side to a total of 246 and then taking four wickets. “He was phenomenal, the way he batted, especially with the tail,” said the captain, Tamim Iqbal.
“Those 20 or 25 runs he got were very, very important. And the wicket didn’t have that much spin, but the way he bowled was something really, really brilliant.”
