Jos Buttler, the captain of England team, came up in defense of the training schedule of his team during the present tour after former India coach Ravi Shastri blasted the visitors for not putting in “hard yards”.
The English team had lost all three ODIs to be drubbed 0-3 after them being drubbed 1-4 in the five-match T20I series, and did not train before the second and third ODIs in Cuttack and Ahmedabad.
However, a training session was held prior to the first ODI, scheduled to take place in Nagpur, even while Shastri lambasted the Indian team’s training exercises as insufficient.
“From what I’ve heard, England have had just one net session this entire trip, if not any. If you’re not prepared to do the hard yards, you will never improve,” Shastri said in commentary during the third ODI, which England won by 142 runs.
But Buttler was coming from a different angle.
“I’m not sure that’s quite true, to be honest. We had a pretty long tour, a few long travelling days. A couple of times we’ve not trained but we’ve done plenty over the course of the tour,” said Buttler to the media.
“But we also try and create a really good environment, but also don’t mistake that for lazy or lack of effort. These boys are very hungry to perform and do well and improve,” Buttler added.
Training sessions were held for England prior to its initial T20I match detraining before it commenced in Kolkata. The team held sessions before the second T20I in Chennai and the last one in Rajkot.
But no training sessions were conducted before the fourth and fifth T20 games in Pune and Mumbai, respectively.
Buttler said throughout the tour there were moments when England could have capitalised and did not do so enough.
“I suppose a similar theme runs throughout this series and the whole tour. There were a couple of small moments in the game, but never really enough to go on and force a result or win against a very good team.”
Buttler was hoping that Ben Duckett, their in-form opener who suffered a groin injury during the third ODI here, will be fit ahead of the Champions Trophy starting February 19.
“Obviously he has been playing well; we hope it is not too bad. (We will) find out more, obviously, over the next couple of days, but it is a little bit of time. Hopefully, he will be okay,” he said.
“He has played fantastically well on all tours. He seems to keep getting better and better. (We are) really pleased with how he is performing, and he has been great for us!” Buttler further said.
Buttler said defeats to India have not dented England’s confidence.
“Not necessarily. Obviously, we want the results to build confidence and win games. That (would) feel a lot better sitting here and having won matches as opposed to losing. But look, we are up against a good side in their own conditions. They are probably the benchmark in ODI cricket at the moment,” he said.
“We have not played near our potential. We have had some moments in games, but never enough to force results or look like winning games of cricket in the last three matches.”
“But the fact that we are not anywhere near our potential yet or playing individually or collectively where we know we could be gives us something to look forward to believing we can be there and be a dangerous team in the Champions’ Trophy,” he said.
