Doesn’t define me as person or my whole career: Jos Buttler on England’s disappointing 2023 WC campaign

St John’s [Antigua], December 2 (ANI): England captain Jos Buttler pressed that he would use England’s 2023 World Cup debacle to motivate him for the rest of his career, but he insisted the humiliating campaign doesn’t define him as a person or his entire career.

England’s title defence was a disaster, with Buttler failing to score a single fifty and averaging 15.33 in nine group-stage matches as his form entirely left him.

Buttler is back on the road, trying to clear the slate as he heads a new-look England side on a white-ball tour of the West Indies, beginning with the first of three one-day internationals on Sunday in Antigua.

Buttler and head coach Matthew Mott took lots of flak for placing seventh out of ten teams in the subcontinent.

“Having good people around you, people who are close to you, that keeps some perspective on life and on cricket. It’s meant to be hard at times, right? We’re playing international cricket events against the best players in the world and they’ve all got the same ambitions as we have so there’s going to be times when it’s not easy,” the double World Cup winner was quoted as saying by Skysports.

“It’s this easy to be captain hindsight. Say you got XYZ wrong, when if you don’t play well enough to try and implement your plan, the decisions can maybe become a little bit irrelevant. I always think of Ben Stokes’ words to Jofra about the super over: whatever happens here doesn’t define you and I certainly don’t feel like that World Cup is the defining moment for me,” he added.

“It’s a huge disappointment but it doesn’t define me as a person or my whole career. So, just use it as something to make sure I look forward now and enjoy the challenges ahead. Life moves on, the world moves on pretty fast. There’s always something to look forward to. It’s never as bad as you think it is and it’s never as good as you think it is,” England white-ball captain said.

England’s plight has fueled conjecture about a future reset, and only a half-dozen players who were in India for the World Cup are in the Caribbean for an ODI series that begins on Sunday in Antigua. England’s World Cup players include captain Jos Buttler, batter Harry Brook, all-rounders Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran, and fast bowlers Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse are out in the West Indies.

ODI squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Ollie Pope, Phil Salt, Matthew Potts and John Turner.

T20I Squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Tymal Mills, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Matthew Potts, Reece Topley, John Turner and Chris Woakes.