Former England captain Michael Vaughan reckons Jos Buttler won’t survive as captain after England were knocked out of the Champions Trophy. Buttler’s team suffered a shocking eight-run loss against Afghanistan at the Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore on Wednesday.
Afghanistan posted a par score of 325 runs on the board whereas England was skittled out for 317. Joe Root scored an impressive knock of 120 runs but the rest of the English batters could not contribute much.
Vaughan noted that England hasn’t been at their best in the last three major ICC events. England could not make it to the semifinals of 2023 ODI World Cup in India and suffered a semifinal loss against England in the 2024 T20I World Cup against India.
“Given he has been part of three failed ICC tournaments in a row, Jos Buttler won’t survive as captain. The 50-over World Cup was a complete shemozzle for many reasons, then the T20 in the Caribbean was limp, and cost Matthew Mott his job. This time, with another defeat to Afghanistan, Buttler will be the scapegoat. But let’s not kid ourselves that it will suddenly change everything, because England’s problems run much deeper,” Vaughan wrote for the Telegraph.
Vaughan added they don’t quite appreciate the impact of former skipper Eoin Morgan.
“We probably didn’t fully appreciate the impact of Eoin Morgan, or the brilliance of his combination with Trevor Bayliss. They whacked it with the bat, but they were smart with bat and ball. Now, it’s just run in and bowl as fast as you can.”
Vaughan feels England needs specialist players for the white-ball formats and feels only three or four lads can be all-format players.
“England give off the impression that they are the opposite. Brendon McCullum has been charged with bringing a great vibe and going on gut feel, but is that the answer? They have united the coaches, the backroom team and now the players. Before 2019, we used to pack the Test team with white-ball players. Now we pack the white-ball team with Test players! We need some dedicated white-ball players, dedicated Test players, then a small group of maybe three or four who command a place in all formats.”
England will play their final game of the tournament against South Africa at the National Stadium, Karachi on Saturday.
