England’s sorry early exit at the Champions Trophy has sparked a swift and ruthless search for a scapegoat — and the UK papers will tell you there’s only one contender: Jos Buttler.

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The nation’s white ball captain is on Thursday facing a tidal wave of calls for him to step down from his post after England exited the tournament after losing consecutive games to Australia and Afghanistan.

The poor result comes after England also lost seven of eight white balls games against India to kick-off Brendon McCullum’s takeover of white ball coaching duties.

But the finger remains squarely pointed at Buttler, who became captain after Eoin Morgan retired in 2022, leading the side to a failed 2023 World Cup campaign, and a crushing semi-final loss at the 2024 T20 World Cup.

READ MORE: ‘No excuses’: England roasted over embarrassing exit as Afghanistan stun Poms in thriller

Buttler’s own performances in Pakistan left plenty to be desired with the middle-order batter labouring to 23 off 21 balls against Australia, and 38 off 42 against Afghanistan.

England fell eight runs short in their chase of 325 — and feel no closer to replicating the glory of their 2019 and 2022 World Cup and T20 World Cup wins, slipping to seventh in the world ODI rankings.

Three former England captains, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, and Michael Vaughan are now all of the same opinion.

“I think his time is done as captain,” Atherton said on Sky Sports. “I think that’s probably right.

“England do judge themselves on these ICC events, they’ve made that very clear, that because they come along so frequently now, they build towards these tournaments.

“But England have had three bad ones in a row now, the disastrous 50-over World Cup in India, a poor T20 World Cup in the Caribbean – where they made the semis but they didn’t beat anybody of note through it – and now here, and their cricket is way below the standards which they set themselves.

“Sometimes you just have to say it’s not working and therefore it’s time for a change and time for somebody else, and I think deep down, he probably knows that.”

Hussain agreed with Atherton, saying that while he likes Buttler as a person, he doesn’t believe that captaincy has ever sit truly comfortably with him.

“I’ve never looked at Buttler and thought ‘wow what a leader,’ he doesn’t have that presence in the field that an Eoin Morgan had,” Hussain said. “That’s a bad comparison because you’re talking about England’s greatest-ever white-ball captain, and he was a hard act to follow.

“As far as captaincy goes, I don’t think Buttler has added that much to this England team, but it’s taken away from his batting. And when you add the two together, take away from a great player and you’re not gaining with leadership and captaincy, I think it’s probably time to move on.”

The former captains’ calls came amid a more brutal take from the Daily Mail’s Lawrence Booth, who wrote in a strongly-worded column that Buttler must move on.

“Jos Buttler is England’s greatest white-ball batsman – and if that’s how he wants to be remembered, he must step down as captain,” he wrote.

“Here we are now, with England embarrassed at another global event, having regularly protested that the revival is just round the corner.

“As much as anything, it is this whiff of self-delusion that has characterised the Buttler era ever since the early high point of the T20 World Cup triumph in Australia at the end of 2022. Liam Livingstone’s insistence, after the failure to defend more than 350 against Australia on Saturday, that England didn’t deserve to lose was only the latest example.

“They have lost fans as easily as they have lost games. It’s time for a clean start…”

Vaughan also predicts that Buttler won’t remain as England’s white-ball captain, despite describing the Champions Trophy result as being “not surprising”.

Writing a column for The Telegraph, Vaughan said Buttler will be the scapegoat — but removing him as captain will not solve everything.

“Let’s not kid ourselves that it will suddenly change everything, because England’s problems run much deeper,” Vaughan wrote.

Vaughan lamented England’s inability to sustain Test success and white ball success simultaneously — something which their biggest rivals, Australia and India, have done more consistently.

“At no stage in our history have we been good at both for any meaningful period of time,” he wrote. “That is not good enough and is down to management.

“England have felt they will be alright on the night in the last three World Cups, thinking they knew how to do it. But they have forgotten the principles of what made them a great team – playing together, knowing roles and combinations. They used to look like a military operation under Morgan, but now you never quite know what is coming next.”

Vaughan warned that there will be “no quick fixes” for this England side.

This was backed up by Atherton who noted that, despite the need for Buttler to move on, there was no clear replacement option — although Harry Brook shows some potential.

“Just thinking about it, there isn’t that much choice,” he said on Sky Sports. “Harry Brook did it quite well, I thought, in the Australia series, the 50-over series that ended the summer, and it’s hard to think beyond him.

“He’s very young and inexperienced in ODI cricket but maybe it’s a chance to build something with McCullum.”