- England crashed out of the Champions Trophy after losing to Afghanistan
- Jos Buttler is set to consider his future after another disappointing tournament
- But he already knows that a fresh start is needed and he has to step down
Jos Buttler is England’s greatest white-ball batsman – and if that’s how he wants to be remembered, he must step down as captain.
Only three teams have so far been eliminated from the Champions Trophy: Pakistan and Bangladesh, two of international cricket’s regular basket cases, and now England, who until 18 months ago were double world champions. Their unravelling has been spectacular.
Defeats these past few days in Lahore, by Australia and Afghanistan, have confirmed what was obvious long before they lost seven ODIs and T20s out of eight in India: Buttler is not the man to take England’s limited-overs teams forward.
As he spoke on the outfield after his side’s sixth straight ODI defeat, he all but acknowledged the point himself. ‘I don’t want to make any emotional statements right now,’ he said, ‘but for myself and the guys at the top, we should consider all possibilities.’
Translation: I can’t admit it before our final game against South Africa, but it’s time to go.
The warning signs were there during the one-day World Cup in India in late 2023, when Buttler and coach Matthew Mott repeatedly urged England to relocate their mojo – and repeatedly found themselves unable to explain the latest defeat.
Jos Buttler’s England were eliminated from the Champions Trophy on Wednesday
England have gone backwards under Buttler and it is time for him to step down as captain
Wednesday’s defeat by Afghanistan was England’s sixth straight one-day international loss
Surprisingly, England gave the partnership another chance – only for the T20 team to bomb in the Caribbean last summer, when a place in the semi-finals masked the reality of a solitary win over meaningful opponents.
Mott was sacked, which meant breathing space for Buttler. And here we are now, with England embarrassed at another global event, having regularly protested that the revival is just round the corner.
As much as anything, it is this whiff of self-delusion that has characterised the Buttler era ever since the early high point of the T20 World Cup triumph in Australia at the end of 2022. Liam Livingstone’s insistence, after the failure to defend more than 350 against Australia on Saturday, that England didn’t deserve to lose was only the latest example. They have lost fans as easily as they have lost games.
It’s time for a clean start, allowing the 34-year-old Buttler to return to life as a specialist batsman for the final phase of his career.
There is no ideal solution, because our domestic game no longer prepares natural 50-over cricketers. But Harry Brook did a decent job at home to Australia at the end of last summer, and should now get a chance to bed into the role in time for the 2026 T20 World Cup in South Asia.
