24 January 2023 , 10:36
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England white-ball captain Jos Buttler had some big shoes to fill when he took over from Eoin Morgan in June last year following his retirement from international cricket.
Since taking charge in 2015, Morgan had overseen a white-ball revolution which culminated in England winning the 50-over World Cup on home soil in 2019. And after some early struggles saw England lose Buttler's first three series in charge, they hit their stride in the winter and went on to win the T20 World Cup.
England are now double champions in white-ball cricket and are looking to defend their 50-over crown later this year. But with just 13 ODIs scheduled before the tournament gets underway in October, Buttler admits England have more "challenges" to deal with this time around than they did in 2019.
England have series scheduled against South Africa, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Ireland, but Buttler is unlikely to have a full-strength squad at his disposal. Joe Root and Mark Wood, both World Cup winners in 2019, have both been rested for the South Africa series.
There is also only a one-day gap between the end of the New Zealand Test series and the start of the Bangladesh ODI series, meaning the likes of Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Olly Stone and Root are unlikely to feature.
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And England do have plenty of questions they need to answer before the World Cup begins, with two huge gaps to fill in the middle order following the retirements of Morgan and Ben Stokes - although England are hoping the latter will unretire for the World Cup.
"We don't have many games before the World Cup so they are all crucial for us to try and nail down some positions and give people some confidence in role clarity," Buttler told Sky Sports.
Buttler played a key role in England's 2019 victory (Gareth Copley-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)"We have a decent idea of the squad we want to take to the World Cup but there is competition for places and people pushing and that drives people and standards. We have a lot of options and over the next six months it is up to us to nail down what that looks like.
"There are challenges through scheduling and availability of players where you don't get to build up like you did four years ago - I think we played 70 ODIs or something like that before the last World Cup, but now there have been fewer games and less time together.
"That's just the way it is, there is no reason it should affect our performance. The series in Bangladesh will be a vital one, probably the only real chance we will get to experience conditions that we might at the World Cup in India."