England ’keeper feels his team should play courageous cricket to avoid another defeat in Australia
Perth: Wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler believes his teammates must play without fear if they are to be avoid being branded as one of the worst England teams ever. After 90 days without a single success against Australia on their winter tour, England are on the verge of their longest losing sequence.
England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler en route his 36-ball 49 during the second ODI against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane last week. Pic/Getty Images
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Defeat in the fourth one-day international in Perth today will match their worst ever run of 10 defeats, across all formats, suffered in 1993 and 2001. Unsurprisingly, Buttler revealed an urgency amongst his peers to break their winter duck when they take on a weakened Australia at the WACA Ground.
“Obviously we are very desperate to avoid that (losing record),” Buttler said. “It’s not a tag anyone would like. You go into every game wanting to win it and we haven’t done that this tour. “Everyone is very disappointed with that fact, but Friday is another opportunity to try and turn that around.”
The fact that Australia have inflicted all nine defeats, dating back to last summer, means confidence is hardly sky-high in the away dressing-room. The 23-year-old believes adopting an Australian-styled ‘no worries’ approach can net long-awaited success.
“One-day cricket is a tough game to play when your confidence has been knocked,” he said. “You need to play with that free, open mind. That’s something we need to do. We can’t worry about consequences of playing a shot and worrying about getting out.
“You’ve seen the Australians playing with a good brand of cricket and a very confident brand of cricket naturally because they are winning games. It’s a very tough thing to do when you are losing games to not worry about the outcomes of potentially getting out and these sorts of things.
“That’s something we have to do — lose that worry — and know what good players we are and be confident in that,” he added.
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