Jos Buttler says England need to improve after ODI series defeat to India

England’s limited-overs captain Jos Buttler shared his thoughts on England’s performance against India in the white-ball series claiming that the team needs to reflect on their performances. In his first assignment as England captain, neither Buttler nor his team was able to hit top form and they collapsed against the Indian bowling attack on several occasions.

England’s bowling unit, on the other hand, despite being at half strength, has done quite well and kept the hosts alive in the series. After losing the third ODI because of a stunning partnership between Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant, Buttler has said that it was Pant’s fearless attitude that set him apart from the ODI World Cup winners and they need to find their rhythm soon.

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He stated, "We just need to be better. We just haven't played our best by a long stretch and going back to T20s as well. So I think, individually and collectively, (we need) just to reflect and reflect quickly because there's not much time. We need to get back to what we do really well as a team. We've not played a lot of ODI cricket in the recent past and maybe just working out the rhythm of the game again... we just haven't played our best. And actually not playing our best at Lord's and today we still get up to a score that gives us a chance."

As far as the game is concerned, India successfully restricted England to a score of 259. Hardik Pandya registered figures of 4 for 24, Yuzvendra Chahal picked up 3 wickets for 60 and Mohammed Siraj picked up a couple of wickets as well. Jos Buttler top-scored for England with 60 off 80 balls. 

Pant made headlines with his swashbuckling knock

While chasing, the visitors lost Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli within 10 overs. Suryakumar Yadav also failed to shine. It was Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya who steadied the ship and added 133 runs on the board. While Pandya scored a quickfire 71 off 55, it was Pant who finished the chase in style, scoring 125* off 113 with 16 fours and 2 sixes. For England, Reece Topley claimed 3 wickets for 35.