England will enter the Champions Trophy after being whitewashed 3-0 by India in the one-day international series, which will require Jos Buttler’s men to turn the tide around to go all the way in the eight-team International Cricket Council tournament. But former England batter Mark Butcher feels that the squad lacks experience.
“The first thing that sprung to my mind during the first two ODIs (against India) was just how naive most of our cricket is in the 50-over format. I thought ‘why might that be?’. It’s because we don’t play any. There is a world of difference in terms of the tempo that the game needs to continuously be played at,” said Butcher on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast.
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The English team’s recent performance in ODIs has been lacklustre, securing only four victories in 14 matches since the 2023 ODI World Cup.
“I don’t mean that the tempo is a rigid graph that only goes up, the tempo needs to fluctuate in 50-over cricket in a way that it doesn’t need to in 20-over cricket. Having that skill and nous and game awareness to know when to put the foot down and when to ease off a little but, when to sit in and when to go hard, is something that only comes with playing lots of it,” he added.
“I remember back in the 90s when England would play three Texaco Trophy matches during the course of the summer, the sum total of England’s 50-over cricket would be three to six matches per summer. They’d be playing against Indian sides, or West Indian sides or Australian sides.
“The difference in number of caps between them and our players was three times more on the other team. We’re kind of back in that situation now whereby the India players will out number the number of caps of even someone like Jos Buttler for example, by at least two to one or three to one,” said Butcher.
The Champions Trophy draw places England against Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa in Group B. England will open their campaign against Australia on February 22.
“That our team and the make-up of it and the experience of it is going to have the skill and the nous and the know-how to win what is a very difficult form of cricket, 50-over cricket. It requires more than just putting your foot to the floor and keeping it there,” Butcher concluded.