- 9 minutes ago
Jos Buttler has opened up about the challenge of rediscovering his voice in the England dressing room after stepping down as captain.
Speaking ahead of England's clash with the West Indies, the former skipper admitted the transition hasn't been straightforward. "Being a past captain is, I've initially found that quite tricky. You sort of almost withhold quite a lot and withdraw because you don't want to feel—you've had your go, you're out the way now," Buttler said.
The wicketkeeper-batter revealed he spoke to Joe Root about navigating similar emotions when Root returned to the Test side under Ben Stokes' captaincy. "He was stood at slip and I was keeping wicket. We had five or ten minutes just talking about it, how different it is," Buttler explained.
However, encouragement from current captain Harry Brook and head coach Brendon McCullum has helped Buttler embrace his role as a senior voice within the group.
Speaking ahead of England's clash with the West Indies, the former skipper admitted the transition hasn't been straightforward. "Being a past captain is, I've initially found that quite tricky. You sort of almost withhold quite a lot and withdraw because you don't want to feel—you've had your go, you're out the way now," Buttler said.
The wicketkeeper-batter revealed he spoke to Joe Root about navigating similar emotions when Root returned to the Test side under Ben Stokes' captaincy. "He was stood at slip and I was keeping wicket. We had five or ten minutes just talking about it, how different it is," Buttler explained.
However, encouragement from current captain Harry Brook and head coach Brendon McCullum has helped Buttler embrace his role as a senior voice within the group.
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00:00Hi, Joss. Maybe a bit closer than you would have liked on Sunday, but do you learn more from these type of games and maybe giving teams an absolute toweling?
00:09Yeah, great game of cricket. I thought all credit to Nepal. They played really well, pushed us really close and were favorites for some of that chase, I would say.
00:18And I think in T20 World Cups, T20 cricket, generally the games are closer. There's less possibilities.
00:25Obviously, one or two players can win games for their side on the day. So I think you're going to see some close games of cricket.
00:32And ultimately, we found a way to win, which is the most important thing.
00:37Do you learn more as a side in those close games and knowing you can hold your nerve than, like I say, a victory by a wide margin?
00:47Yeah, a little bit. We've been playing some good T20 cricket for a little while now.
00:52We had a good series in Sri Lanka before this. And going back in the previous 12 months, we've learned plenty as a side, playing different games and in different conditions, different styles of T20 cricket.
01:05Tournament cricket is a bit different. Obviously, the consequences are different.
01:09So learning how to manage those emotions and how to know the cricket is the same, but obviously the consequences and the pressures of that are then different.
01:17So if you can hold your nerve and manage to still execute skills, knowing that the consequences are different, that's probably a good learning for the group that we can do that.
01:28And obviously, we saw Baz with a walkie-talkie up in the dressing room there relaying instructions down to the subfielders who relate to you guys.
01:37Is this a sign that he's taking a more of a hands-on approach now?
01:39I think he's had those walkie-talkies for a while, to be fair. But yeah, the communication from top to bottom has always been really good in the group.
01:49I think Baz can sit with his feet up and his sunglasses on and look very relaxed, but he's as sharp a coach as I've ever worked with.
01:58He doesn't miss a beat. He's obviously a really successful captain.
02:01So he's got lots of great messages and knowledge and stuff to pass on to all the players.
02:08And his relationship with Harry Brook, I think, has been a great one for this team.
02:13They're a really close pair. They see the game in a similar way and also challenge each other.
02:18And I think more so for cricket in general, actually, to be coaches getting more involved in real time in the cricket.
02:27I played in the IPL at Gujarat where Ashley Schneera is very active on the boundary rope.
02:33And it seems like cricket were the kind of sport where we are still a bit behind, maybe, in that area where you look at other sports where managers and coaches,
02:42you think of rugby running messages on and plays like that.
02:46So maybe that will come more and more into cricket.
02:49Just lastly, your own role.
02:51I think Will or Harry said afterwards that you were talking at the second drinks break when obviously that game was on a knife edge.
02:59Just how do you assess your own role in the team now?
03:01And do you feel more confident to sort of speak in the group now that you are that sort of elder statesman person?
03:08Yeah, I think as a senior player, you've definitely got a role to play.
03:12And you've been in lots of situations, seen most of it and to try and share knowledge.
03:18Being a past captain is I've initially found that quite tricky, sort of almost withhold quite a lot and withdraw because you don't want to feel, you know, you've had your go.
03:31You're out of the way now.
03:32But just making sure that I'm available to share knowledge if I'm being encouraged by Brookie and Baz that if you feel like you've got something to share or you think will help the group,
03:44then don't be shy to say it or speak up.
03:52At that drinks break, Harry would have spoken as well.
03:55And it sounds like there was a similar chat during the last T20 in Sri Lanka, which was also a tight one.
04:02How difficult is it to raise the team in those moments?
04:07And how do you think Harry does then?
04:10That isn't necessarily difficult.
04:12I think it's in T20 cricket getting the opportunity to bring everyone together.
04:17Obviously, the game moves fast.
04:19The momentum of the game moves fast against Nepal with an amazing crowd here as well.
04:24The crowd play a big part in the momentum of the game.
04:27So those drink breaks are two, two and a half minutes where you can deliver really clear messages, get everyone together on the same page.
04:36And then not, I think maybe on the outside, it can feel like that's a really pivotal point.
04:43But actually, you get together and realise that everyone's pretty calm, actually.
04:47And the captain can deliver some really good messages.
04:49Sam Curran as well took it upon himself to say a few words.
04:53So I think that's a nice bit about the group.
04:55You're seeing different people step up and help share information or lead in different ways at different times.
05:02And Harry is really good at delivering very simple, concise messages which everyone can get on board with.
05:10So just to pull the group close together for the next and give clear direction for the next overall two as to how we're going to go about our work.
05:18A couple of England's most experienced bowlers got a bit of tap in that game against Nepal.
05:25And you'd have had it as well as an experienced batter if you feel that you haven't executed on an occasion.
05:30How easy is it to put that behind you and just take the next game and not have it hang over you when you're next?
05:38Yeah, pretty easy, to be honest.
05:40I think we're all accepting of how T20 cricket works.
05:46You're chasing 180, you know the batters are going to come after you and be aggressive.
05:51And I thought, credit to the Nepal guys, I thought they played really, really well.
05:54They ran between the wickets well, they found the boundary when they needed to.
06:00And experienced players, I think you're talking about Joffre and Adil in that case, have seen it all before.
06:06And they're not immune to people playing well against them.
06:10That's allowed.
06:11We try our best and want to perform really well.
06:14But every other country and every other player that we play against is wanting to do the same.
06:18So that's T20 cricket.
06:20And, you know, you start again tomorrow, 0 for 0, and it's a new game.
06:27Just lastly, were you surprised at all in the surface that was prepared for, not just you, but for India the previous day, how it behaved, how hard it was at times?
06:37And are you expecting something significantly different for tomorrow?
06:42Not necessarily surprised.
06:44I think the, you can have a good bounce here and the red saw, you can get a bit of spin.
06:52It was a little bit tacky, the wicket.
06:53I think playing at three o'clock was interesting, sort of working out, you know, would it, would the wicket improve or would it get worse?
07:02Or maybe a used wicket, obviously.
07:03But generally here, coming into the evening games, batting second can be an advantage.
07:10Obviously, we play a night game against the West Indies, so the conditions probably won't change as much.
07:17That three o'clock into five, six o'clock, I think it's quite a tricky period.
07:22But that's the beauty of the game of cricket, is you've got to turn up, read the conditions as quickly as you can and adapt and play.
07:32You've just got to play to win on that day.
07:34It doesn't, you don't need to worry about pass scores or winning scores, you just need one more run than the opposition on that day, on that given surface.
07:43And that's, that's the most important thing in tournament cricket, especially.
07:47Hi, Josh.
07:50This is a very young England group and a very vivacious one at that.
07:55In a group like this, when it, when push comes to shove, I want to know what is your sort of role in the leadership group?
08:01Because last day we saw that, you know, when Luke Wood was also going for runs, you ran all the way from your wicket keeping spot and you were giving him advices.
08:08So, in a young group like this, when there are moments when nerves are getting exposed, what is your sort of role to inculcate calm among the chaos?
08:17I think as a senior player, when you've seen lots of cricket and been in lots of situations to try and work out where you can help, not just on the field, off the field, around training, be available to young players.
08:32There's so many people who can do that to help guys.
08:35I've, I've played quite a bit of cricket with Luke Wood actually at Lancashire, so know him pretty well and know sort of, you know, as a wicket keeper, you can slow the game down a bit because it takes you a long time to get to the bowler.
08:49So, just to take a bit of sting out the game at some times and yeah, just trying to help.
08:55It's the beauty of the game.
08:57It's a team game and you're just trying to work out areas where you can assist your teammates and get the desired result.
09:04We'll take four more, one each, so Matt, Richard, DJ and then we'll finish there.
09:09Josh, you mentioned that sort of difficulty finding your place again back in the team as a former captain.
09:15Joe Root obviously went through that in the test team and he spoke about that playing under Ben.
09:20Is that something you've spoken to him about at all?
09:22Yeah, I actually remember speaking to him about it the very first, second game I think we played at Cardiff actually.
09:30It was actually during the game.
09:31He was stood at slip and I was keeping wicket and we had five or ten minutes just talking about it, how different it is when you've captain the team and then coming back in and some of the various emotions he felt, the challenges that he found.
09:46And yeah, so it was really helpful.
09:50Yeah, Joe's someone I've played a lot of cricket with and a good friend.
09:54So yeah, it's nice to just sort of compare notes.
09:58And just on Adel in particular, I think the other day was first time in 20 odd T20s he hadn't taken a wicket.
10:05You've played with him for a long time as well.
10:07How would he deal with that afterwards?
10:10I sense by the smile.
10:12He won't think about it too deep.
10:13I don't think he'll be too bothered.
10:15He's a great bowler.
10:16He's been a great bowler for a long time, but great bowlers can, you know, the opposition need to find a way to deal with those bowlers.
10:24And they attacked him and played him really well, but he's been brilliant for a long time.
10:28And it's part of team play, right?
10:31The guys, the other bowlers picked up where Liam Dawson and Adel were a really key, crucial pair.
10:40And Liam bowled fantastically well.
10:41Sam Curran bowled fantastically well when needed.
10:43So it's a group effort.
10:45It's a team thing.
10:46And Adel is someone that we know we always expect a lot of.
10:52But it's cricket and T20 cricket especially.
10:56You're going to have days like that.
10:57Richard, thank you.
10:59You've had a lot of success personally in India for a big career.
11:03Last year's T20 series here is quite a painful series in terms of your show.
11:09Did you learn things from that series however that you think will have transformed themselves in what you did in Sri Lanka and will hold you in a good step here?
11:17Has anything you learned about what you might be doing wrong last year?
11:20Or what was there any sort of learnings from that?
11:24Definite learnings.
11:25I think obviously playing against India in India is a great challenge, a tough challenge for anyone.
11:31So you're always going to learn things from that.
11:33I think probably I would say we attacked with pace a lot at that tour.
11:42And I think you see on these grounds, pace isn't like the only thing, especially in international cricket.
11:49People are used to playing fast bowling.
11:51It's not like it's a given that that will be successful.
11:55It's about skill and execution.
11:57And obviously in that tour we had some exceptionally fast bowlers, Mark Wood, Joffre, Brydon Castle is here.
12:04But it's clear that just pace isn't the only answer.
12:10And I just look at the side we have at the moment.
12:13It's a nicely balanced bowling attack.
12:15If you need a lot of spin, there's a lot of spinovers in the group.
12:19If you need pace, it's there.
12:21If you need naus and skill and slow balls, it's there.
12:24So I think that's a really nice, we've got a nice balanced attack.
12:27And not just sort of all out trying to blow teams away with pace.
12:34Just before the start of the World Cup, before the start of the World Cup, the talk was 250, 300.
12:43You know, that was the buzzword.
12:44Even your captain in the pre-court tournament, BC, he said that 300 could be a possibility.
12:51So given what has happened, so far we have seen more low scores than high scores.
12:57First thing, are you kind of disappointed with the pitches?
12:59And secondly, do you see there is a kind of effort somewhere to make it challenging pitches so that more level, the more difficult the pitches, more level is the playing field between, you know, number three ranked, you know, USA number 16 or India 1 and USA 18 and you were 16 with Nepal.
13:24Yeah, I think 300 and 250, they're kind of outliers anyway, still in the game.
13:31They're not that common.
13:33They are more common than they have been, but it's not like every game is a game like that.
13:38And I think going around India and having played here a lot before, there may be games that might play out that way, but there'll also be tighter, closer games.
13:50And I think you see in bilateral cricket, as we spoke about before, the pressures and the consequences of the result are a little bit different.
13:58And I think generally in World Cups, you see teams play the percentages a little bit more, maybe not risk as much.
14:07I might be wrong there, but I think that's as a general thing.
14:11I remember in 2019 going into that 50 over World Cup, everyone was talking about 350, 400 scores, the flat wickets in England.
14:19But then it turned out with 11 o'clock starts and power play bowling was the key thing.
14:26And the final we played in 240, played 240, that kind of cricket.
14:30So, yeah, but we just, you've got to play the game on the day, work out what it is.
14:37And so before you need one more run than the opposition.
14:39So if you need 301, you've got to find a way to do that.
14:42If you need 121 to do that, that's the beauty of World Cup cricket.
14:48It's all on the line on that one match.
14:52Hi, Josh.
14:53While going through the preview for this match, I was looking at the scorecard a decade back.
14:58You guys played at the Wankhede against the West Indies and Chris Gale hit 11 sixes in that 100.
15:05Do you have memories of that game?
15:06You played that game.
15:07So you remember the flying all over the park from Chris Gale's back?
15:10Yeah, I do remember I had a good view for that.
15:14Actually, I think Moeen bowled an unbelievable spell of bowling at him.
15:17And then he decided to hit the last three balls he faced off Moe for three sixes.
15:22So Chris Gale is the best T20 batter there's ever been.
15:26So, yeah, 10 years ago.
15:29Obviously, hopefully the result can be different tomorrow night.
15:33Thank you very much.
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