Not much for Buttler to smile about as England are spanked
JOS BUTTLER, a man whose default expression is that of someone who has lost a pound and found a penny, went into the T20 series against India promising to smile more.
“I’ve been practising my smile in front of the mirror,” said the England captain before the opening game in Kolkata on Wednesday.
“I feel in a good place, I’m excited.”
Only a madman would have been beaming after this match, though, as England were thrashed by seven wickets.
Once again, England struggled against spin, 12 overs of the stuff yielding 5-67 as the tourists crashed to 132 all-out from the final delivery after being asked to bat.
Buttler’s 68 was the only score of note (worth a wry smile, perhaps), with only Harry Brook and Jofra Archer also reaching double figures.
India needed just 12.5 overs to get the job done, Abhishek Sharma, the 24-year-old opener, thrashing 79 from 34 balls with eight sixes and five fours, the left-hander reaching his fifty from just 20 deliveries as only Archer (2-21 from four overs) impressed with the ball.
Not the greatest start, it is fair to say, to Brendon McCullum’s reign as England’s dual red and white-ball coach, the New Zealander, on this evidence, having much work to do.
As England’s white-ball lustre has steadily dimmed, culminating in disappointing showings in the most recent 50-over and T20 World Cups, Buttler admitted that he feared for his job as previous coach Matthew Mott paid with his own role.
McCullum – hoping to instill some Bazball-type magic into the limited-overs set-up – acknowledged that Buttler had looked “a little bit miserable at times”, not that he seemed especially perky himself whenever the camera panned to him during this pummelling.
England were spanked despite the hosts missing several key players through rest or injury, including Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant.
Still the gulf in class was considerable, leaving England with plenty to ponder ahead of the second of the five games in Chennai on Saturday.
Before a large and excitable Eden Gardens crowd, the tone was set in the first over when Phil Salt skied the third ball into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.
When Arshdeep Singh, the successful bowler, followed up by dismissing Ben Duckett in his second over, Rinku Singh taking an excellent catch over his shoulder running back at cover, Arshdeep had become India’s leading wicket-taker in T20 internationals with 97, leapfrogging leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
Arshdeep was superb, finding just enough movement with his probing left-armers and compensating for the absence through injury of Bumrah.
Eyebrows had been raised by the hosts’ decision to leave out fellow pace man Mohammed Shami and play three frontline spinners, but the move worked well, leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy turning the screw with a decisive double-breakthrough in the eighth over of the innings when Harry Brook chopped on and Liam Livingstone was beaten by a googly.
Buttler fought a lone hand from the other end, advancing to his fifty from 34 balls as wickets continued to tumble around him.
Jacob Bethell’s torturous stay was ended by a pull to deep mid-wicket, and when Jamie Overton skied into the covers and Gus Atkinson was stumped, England were in all sorts at 103-7.
Five runs later, Buttler was brilliantly held by Nitish Kumar Reddy running in from the mid-wicket boundary, the fielder diving forward to take the ball inches from the turf to give Chakravarthy his third wicket.
Archer carved to point and Mark Wood - playing his first game since August after injury - was run out off the final ball as he and Adil Rashid sought to scamper a bye.
After Archer conceded only a single from the first over of India’s reply, the astonishing Abhishek took centre stage.
He hit 22 off Atkinson’s first over - four fours and a six - and was severe on all-comers, hoisting successive deliveries from Wood over the rope despite the bowler touching speeds of 95mph.
Archer struck twice in four balls to have Sanju Samson taken at deep mid-wicket and Suryakumar Yadav top-edging behind as India slipped to 41-2 in the fifth; then England missed a golden chance to get rid of Abhishek at 67-2.
Inexplicably, though, Rashid spilled a fairly routine caught-and-bowled opportunity when the batsman had 29, Abhishek clubbing the Yorkshireman’s next three balls for 4, 6, 6.
Abhishek fell eight runs from the winning line when Rashid deceived him with a googly that he launched to long off, but it was too little, too late.
Buttler did his best to raise a smile at the post-match presentations but it looked horribly forced and was painful to observe.
A little more practice is needed in front of the mirror, perhaps.