England skipper Jos Buttler feared that Indian opener Abhishek Sharma’s sensational hitting could take the home side past 300 in the final T20I fixture on Sunday in Mumbai.
Sharma turned as the tormentor for the England bowlers, as he smashed the balls all around the park to hit 135 off 54 balls and help India post a mammoth total of 247. He registered the second-fastest hundred off 37 balls and hit the most sixes (13) ever for India in a T20I game.
However, other Indian batters couldn’t really step up to support Abhishek Sharma, who was looking strong to help India reach near their all-time highest T20I total of 297.
In response, England started well but lost the plot after Mohammed Shami opened the floodgates for India by sending Ben Duckett for a duck. Only Phil Salt (55) could prove to be a fine contributor, as the visitors were all-out for 97 and lost by 150 runs. As a result, the hosts secured a dominating 4-1 series victory as well.
In the post-match presentation, Jos Buttler revealed that he was worried of England conceding more than 300. However, he thinks Brydon Carse (3/38) and Mark Wood (2/32) pulled things back for the side in the latter half of the first innings.
“At one point I was thinking I don’t want to be the team that concedes 300 for the first time,” Buttler said. “The guys stuck in and we had two commendable performances from Brydon Carse and Mark Wood.”
Jos Buttler also thinks Sharma played “one of the best T20 knocks” and felt they were helpless against his non-stop hitting.
“We were really outplayed,” Buttler said. “I’ve played quite a lot of cricket and credit to Abhishek Sharma. That was one of the best T20 knocks I’ve been on the receiving end of.
“You always sit down and think what more could we have done or how we could have stopped him, but some days I think you have to give a lot of credit to the opposition. He played brilliantly well.”
Jos Buttler hopes England will rebound with same approach
Jos Buttler further talked about whether the team would be adopting a different mindset in the three-match ODI series, which is set to take place from February 6 in Nagpur. According to him, as time passes, the players will get more comfortable by backing their natural instincts and securing success for England.
“We certainly won’t change the way we want to play, we need to keep backing that, be even more committed and be desperate to do well and execute that,” Buttler said.
“If we’re going to fall, I’d rather fall on the proactive side. Hopefully, over time you get more comfortable with that and play better,” he added.
Interestingly, it was the first-ever white-ball series for England under the captain-coach pair of Jos Buttler and Brendon McCullum. The ODI series will prove to be crucial for them ahead of the Champions Trophy, beginning on February 19 in Pakistan and the UAE.
