England captain Jos Buttler had admitted that his job is on the line ahead of their Champions Trophy clash against Afghanistan on Wednesday, February 25. England are going through a bad patch under Buttler as they surrendered the ODI World Cup title in 2023 in underwhelming fashion. The current form of the 2019 World Champions doesn’t paint a good picture as they have lost all the ODI series they have taken part in since the ODI World Cup in 2023.
England have also lost their last four matches, which include a 0-3 series loss to India and the defeat against Australia in the opening match of the Champions Trophy. Speaking to the press ahead of the Afghanistan clash, Buttler said that the team hasn’t performed well in the recent past.
“Yeah absolutely I think anytime as an England captain you want to perform and you want to perform well and you want you to lead your team to winning games of cricket. We haven’t been doing that enough in the recent past.”
However, Buttler said that he will keep looking into the positives at the moment.
“But soon as you sort of catch yourself thinking about any negative things or those kind of things trying to completely flip that and focus on all the positive things that could go right and where you can take the team. So, yeah, very much focused on that,” said Buttler.
With the Australia and South Africa game on Tuesday being washed out, England will need to win their remaining two matches to make it to the semis. Buttler said that the team is excited for the challenge ahead against Afghanistan.
“I think the equation would be the same no matter what, we need to win two games of cricket, first of all we focus fully on tomorrow, its going to be a tough test against Afghanistan, but we’re really excited for that challenge. Everyone’s very much looking forward to the game, try to build on the positives of the last performance and try to take home the victory,” said Buttler.
England vs Afghanistan is like a virtual knockout with the loser being eliminated from the Champions Trophy.
