Barbados: It was one thing to see Jos Butter curled up in the dugout during England’s pursuit of India’s total, knowing well that the said pursuit was not going anywhere. It was another entirely to watch him, almost teary-eyed, addressing a smattering of journalists.
He had no place to hide. The England cap atop his head wasn’t doing a very good job of it. And so he spoke, as best as his emotional self would allow him, about what went wrong before exiting the press conference prematurely because he didn’t have the patience for a technical snag at the post-match press conference.
“We were outplayed by India,” he started. “They fully deserved the victory. So, yeah, I thought they had an above-par score. I was hoping to restrict them to 145-150 runs probably on that pitch. It was always going to be a tough chase from there.”
To call it a ‘chase’ would be an exaggeration because England were in it for maybe five overs before their ship sank, and how! England put up a paltry 103 in response to India’s 171 for 7. That meant the very team which had hammered them by ten wickets in the previous edition of the tournament was down on its knees in this 68-run rout.
“I thought they played well as well. I thought we bowled a little bit without luck in the power play, a few close calls there. But, yes, I think the benefit of hindsight and reflecting, I would have got Moeen (Ali) earlier in the game of course. So, yes, bits and pieces here and there,” he said.
“We thought long and hard about selection, about whether we kept the same balance that we had been playing with that had been working well, or did we need four seamers on that particular wicket. I think that was a really tough call that we made and we ended up sticking with what we had. I think India played a really good game of cricket, whatever team or whatever happened at the toss - they were going to be a tough team to beat and we had to be at our best if we were going to win the game and we were short of our best today.”
Naturally, his retirement or the full rejig of the team came up, and Buttler offered a bit about himself without really saying much about the team and how it has aged and needs some fresh legs.
“To be honest, I'm just looking forward to some time away from the game. I think, as I sit here, emotional after a loss, I don't need to dive too deep into it right now. I just look forward to some space from the game,” he said.
“I haven’t taken in the defeat yet. Very much thinking about this game and what happened and yeah, there's some time between today and the next matches, and we can see what happens.”