England Out Of World Cup? Jos Buttler's Huge Admission Is 'Disappointing'

England captain Jos Buttler expressed his disappointment following the loss to Sri Lanka in their World Cup match in Bengaluru on Thursday. Buttler, replaced the World Cup-winning Eoin Morgan as England's white-ball captain, agreed that the reigning champions are on the brink of elimination after the eight-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka, their fourth in five games so far. Sri Lanka bundled out a struggling England for 156 inside 34 overs and reached their target with 146 balls to spare.

"It certainly looks that way (England are out of the tournament) and that's incredibly disappointing. You get on the plane to come to India and we're in a really good position as a team. Everything looking like it's going to plan and it's just not worked at all," Buttler was quoted as saying by News 18 after the match.

Buttler, who has managed a meagre 95 runs in five matches, admitted that he has failed to lead the team from the front.

"I've been a long way short of my best. As a leader, you want to lead through your own performance and I've not been able to do that," he added.

Buttler, to his credit, refused to use the familiar excuse of blaming the schedule for England's struggles.

"The schedules are the schedules and we've got a lot of things in our favour," said the 33-year-old wicketkeeper batsman

"We've got fantastic support from the coaches...We get fantastic support from our fans as a country, and we've let them all down. It's been a really tough few weeks, incredibly disappointing." 

He added: "So, I don't think there's any blame elsewhere apart from ourselves. And as captain, you sort of feel that the most."

(With AFP Inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

England Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team Jos Buttler Ben Stokes Joe Root World Cup 2023 Cricket