England stand-in captain Jos Buttler said that Sam Curran had shades of former India captain MS Dhoni in his valiant knock of 95 runs against India in the series decider on Sunday in Pune. Curran waged a lone battle in the end but it was not enough as India restricted England to 322 in 50 overs.
The defeat not only denied England a first ODI series win in India in 36 years but also means they end the tour without a victory in any of the three formats, having lost the Tests 3-1 and Twenty20s 3-2.
With all eyes will now be on the IPL beginning on April 9, Buttler believes Curran, who is in the Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings, will have a great opportunity to talk to the former India captain.
“I’m sure Sam would want to talk to MS about tonight’s innings,” Buttler said at the virtual post-match news conference.
“I’m sure there were shades of the way that he (MS Dhoni) would have liked to take the game down if he was in that situation. He’s a great person for Sam to have a conversation with when he meets up MS (in the IPL).”
England all-rounder Moeen Ali will also play for CSK in the IPL.
“We know what an amazing cricketer, finisher MS Dhoni is. A brilliant learning curve for all our players to share dressing rooms with guys like MS” stature in the game. I’m very excited for them.”
The world champions had chased down 337 in 43.3 overs in the second ODI and Buttler said 330-target was a manageable score but they never had any partnership going.
“We were happy to chase that score. We thought that was a manageable score, but we lost wickets at regular intervals and never got those partnerships together. Never thought run-rate would be a big issue but we lost wickets,” Buttler said.
“Small, small things could have done better. I think with the ball we were not quite as disciplined as we have been early on. We gave them a few too many easy boundary balls. They didn’t have to work too hard for those boundaries, but then we pegged back pretty well with spinners picking up those wickets,” he added.
