England skipper Jos Buttler feels playing in the Indian Premier League gives them a lot of familiarity while playing in the Indian conditions. English players like Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood, Liam Livingstone, and Moeen Ali have the experience of playing in the IPL.
Buttler reckons the IPL experience will help them acclimatize to the conditions and hit the ground running in the World Cup. England will begin their title defense against New Zealand at the gigantic Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the England captain has all the experience of playing in the tough Indian conditions because of the IPL and has performed consistently in the lucrative league. Buttler has scored 4823 runs in 169 ODI matches at an average of 41.58 and with a blistering strike rate of 117.98.
The right-hander recently scored 176 runs in four ODI matches against New Zealand at an average of 44 and he would want to carry the good show in the quadrennial event.
“I think it gives us a lot of familiarity with the venues and the travel around India, the hotels you stay in, and those kinds of things. So, we know what to expect. Obviously, we’re playing 50 over cricket, not 20 over cricket as you would in the IPL. And lots of the other teams are in a similar position with that. Many players from all around the world come here and experience the IPL. So, I believe that’s an advantage for most teams to have played quite a bit of cricket in India,” Buttler told the media ahead of the World Cup 2023 opener.
Buttler added there will be challenges for the team as different pitches will play differently across the country. The swashbuckling batter reckons it will be imperative to adapt to different conditions as soon as possible.
“I think the big skill in it, there’ll be lots of different wickets we’ll play on around the country. There can be some of the best batting wickets in the world here. Some of them can be a little bit on the slower side, some can spin. So, reading the conditions quickly will be a big part of the game. But we will always try and adapt our style of attacking cricket to whatever surfaces we’re playing on. I think you’ve got to adapt in the game and play differently. But we’ll always, whatever the sort of game is, we’ll try and play at the higher level of that,” Buttler added.
Meanwhile, Ben Stokes could miss the opening game against New Zealand due to a niggle and Buttler backed Harry Brook to fill in the big shoes of the all-rounder.
“We all know what a fantastic player he is. The start to his international career has been outstanding – in T20 cricket and the Test format. He’s not played loads of ODI cricket, but it’s a format that should suit him perfectly. It will allow him to bat for a long time and make big runs, which he enjoys doing. So, he has got all the shots, you know, for Test cricket, he can play big innings. So, it’s a format that should suit him well,” Buttler said of Brook.
