NEW DELHI: Former India coach Ravi Shastri criticized the visitors for not putting in the “hard yards” during the tour, but England skipper Jos Buttler defended his team’s training routine on Wednesday.
After losing 1-4 in the five-match T20I series, England, who did not train before the second and third ODIs in Cuttack and Ahmedabad, fell 0-3 in the ODIs.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!
Shastri mentioned England’s lack of adequate training, they still conducted a training session before the first ODI in Nagpur.
“From what I’ve heard, England have had just one net session this entire trip, if not any. If you’re not prepared to do the hard yards, you’re not going to improve,” Shastri said in commentary during the third ODI, which India won by 142 runs.
Buttler took a different view.
“I’m not sure that’s quite true, to be honest. We had a reasonably long tour, a few long travel days. There’s been a couple of times we’ve not trained, but we’ve certainly done plenty of training throughout the tour,” Buttler told the media in Ahmedabad.
“We obviously try and create a really good environment, but don’t mistake that for a lazy environment or a lack of effort. The guys are desperate to perform and do well and improve,” Buttler added.
While England trained in Kolkata for the first Twenty20 International before the tour started, they trained in Chennai and Rajkot for the second and third Twenty20 Internationals.
However, there were no practices before the fourth and fifth Twenty20 Internationals at Pune and Mumbai, respectively.
Buttler claimed that England did not do enough to take advantage of the opportunities they had during the tour.
“It’s probably a bit of a similar theme from this series and the whole tour. We had a couple of moments in the game, but never enough to go on and force a result or win against a really good team,” he said.
Buttler hoped that Ben Duckett, their in-form opener, would recover from a groin injury sustained during the third ODI in time for the Champions Trophy, which begins on February 19.
“He’s obviously been playing really well and hopefully it’s not too bad. We’ll find out more, obviously, over the next couple of days, but it’s a little bit of time. Hopefully he’ll be okay,” he said.
“He’s played fantastically well all tour. He seems to keep getting better and better. (We are) really pleased with how he’s performing and he’s been great for us,” Buttler added.
Buttler claimed that England’s confidence has not been dented by their losses to India.
“Not necessarily. Obviously, we want the results to build confidence and win games. That (would) feel a lot better sitting here and having won matches as opposed to losing. But look, we’re up against a good side in their own conditions. They’re probably the benchmark in ODI cricket at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve not played near our potential. We’ve had some moments in games, but never enough to force results or look like winning games of cricket in the last three matches.”
“But the fact that we’re not anywhere near our potential yet or playing individually or collectively where we know we can be gives us something to look forward to and believe that we can get there and be a dangerous team in the Champions’ Trophy,” he said.