‘We needed someone…’: Jos Buttler reveals reason behind England’s ODI series loss to India

Following the defeat in the 2nd ODI against India, England captain Joe Root opened up and stated that the batters getting a solid start, but failing to continue the solid run-scoring was the reason why his team lost the match.

In the second ODI of the three-match series, the England team suffered a massive defeat to India. England team did not only lost the match, but also lost the series 2-0, with one match remaining. Even after posting a competitive 304 on board, England team could not secure a victory.

First the lower-order batters failed to perform well, then the bowling attack also struggled as they were unable to keep Indian batters under constant pressure. The star of India’s innings was Rohit Sharma, who had scored a brilliant century.

In the post-match presentation, Jos Buttler acknowledged that even though they did most of the things well, the team needed to bat much better and reach even more impressive score, probably around 350 runs.

Apart from Joe Root’s 72-ball 69, other batters like Phil Salt (260, Ben Duckett (65), Harry Brook (31), Jos Buttler (34) and Liam Livingstone (41) got a solid start, but could not make big scores.

“I thought we did a lot of things well, we got into a nice position with the bat. We needed someone to push on and get us to 350. Credit to Rohit, he batted superbly, he has been batting like this since a few years in ODI cricket. Wanted to get runs on the board, it skidded on a bit and the opposition also played well. We played the powerplay brilliant, we needed someone to kick on and a score around 330-350 would have been defendable. Just keep taking steps in the right direction, the results are not there but we need to keep going and be positive,” Buttler said in the post-match presentation.

Rohit Sharma turned out at India’s match-winning star as he silenced his critics with an explosive century all over the ground. Rohit ended the low phase in his form, that had been carrying over for quite a while, with a stylish, his career’s second-fastest century.

England will now look to face India in the third match of the three-match ODI series, and the teams will determine whether India wins the series 3-0 (cleansweep), of India wins by 2-1.

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