Jos Buttler goes into Thursday’s World Cup opener against New Zealand dreaming of ‘creating something new’ as England chase a third global trophy in four years – despite a fresh injury cloud descending on Ben Stokes.
England’s star all-rounder cut a peripheral figure during an evening training session at the vast Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday, having picked up a niggle to his left hip that is likely to rule him out of the competition curtain-raiser and raises questions about his readiness for the rest of their title defence.
Buttler suggested that now was ‘not the time to take big risks on someone at the start of the tournament’, with every team facing nine group matches each before the semi-finals start on November 15. The upshot is that Harry Brook, himself a late replacement for the injured Jason Roy, is set to make his 50-over World Cup debut.
But of particular concern will be the fact that, until now, Stokes has been battling with a chronic left knee problem that has turned him into a specialist batsman. The hip problem first emerged during England’s warm-up game against Bangladesh on Monday in Guwahati, though it wasn’t until Tuesday that Stokes asked team medics for help.
As he hobbled around training on the outfield, it seemed inconceivable he would be exposed to the fray of a World Cup opener that brings together the two finalists from the Lord’s thriller of 2019. His next target is Tuesday’s match against Bangladesh in Dharamshala.
England captain Jos Buttler is confident ahead of the World Cup opener against New Zealand
Not even Stokes’s latest fitness crisis, though, could dampen Buttler’s enthusiasm as he sets about trying to make history.
England are already the first men’s side to hold both World Cups simultaneously. But if they triumph this time, culminating in the final back here in Ahmedabad on November 19, Buttler will become the first captain to lead a team to glory in both white-ball formats.
India remain favourites to lift a trophy that has been won by the hosts for every edition since 2011. But England, despite dropping to fifth in the rankings, lead the chasing pack, and Buttler offered two rallying cries on the eve of competition.
The first was that he doesn’t want to talk in terms of a title ‘defence’, since the noun he generally prefers is ‘attack’. The second is that the past is another country, even if as many as six of Thursday’’s line-up took part in England’s barest-of-margins victory under Eoin Morgan against New Zealand four years ago.
‘The past is in the past,’ said Buttler. ‘You can’t recreate something or hold on to it for ever. It’s all about something new. It’s fantastic to be reigning champions and I won’t say we’ve left that behind completely, because it’s a nice place to be.
‘But you’ve given that trophy back now. It’s done. It’s about trying to create something new. We must be hungry to do it again.’
Ben Stokes is likely to miss the competition curtain-raiser due to a small hip problem
Asked whether England fans were right to dream of another World Cup success, Buttler replied: ‘Absolutely, we’re all dreamers and we all want to be able to say those things. The biggest thing is we know we are a team who like being in that position of having expectations. It’s a great place to be.’
The 13th one-day World Cup begins amid whispers of the format’s impending demise, caught in no-man’s land between the rigours of Test cricket and the adrenaline boost of T20.
If there are too many empty seats on Thursday at a stadium whose capacity of over 130,000 makes it the world’s biggest, those whispers will inevitably grow.
But, for the players, the 50-over World Cup still trumps the T20 edition. And England were too busy trying to work out their best XI to fret too much about the bigger picture.
Buttler is dreaming of ‘creating something new’ as England chase a third trophy in four years
With dew a factor at this time of year in northern India, teams may be averse to bowling second under lights with a spin-heavy attack, which could be bad news for Moeen Ali, and bring both Sam Curran and Reece Topley into the equation.
New Zealand, meanwhile, remain without their batting linchpin Kane Williamson, who is in India but not yet fully recovered from a cruciate-ligament injury, and their veteran seamer Tim Southee, who broke a thumb during the 3-1 ODI defeat in England last month.
The relevance of that series will be even more diminished in Stokes’s absence, since it was his pulsating 182 off 124 balls that gave England control in the third match at The Oval.
But, Stokes or no Stokes, Buttler’s team have their eye on the ball – and a prize that would see them go down as arguably the greatest white-ball side of all time.
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