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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Matthew Cooper

England's Jos Buttler issues verdict over his early captaincy duties after India defeats

Jos Buttler has endured a difficult start to life as England 's new white-ball captain, suffering 2-1 defeats to India in both the T20I and ODI series.

Buttler was the natural replacement for Eoin Morgan after he announced his retirement from international cricket, but the 31-year-old has admitted he still has a lot to learn about captaincy.

"I feel like a really experienced cricketer, but in terms of captaincy I'm quite a young captain with lots of opportunity to grow and learn about the role," he said. "I think it will take a bit of time, I want to try and walk before I can run, I've just got to work out, be myself and use the people around me to help me.

"There's such experienced guys in the dressing room and all the coaching staff have been really helpful for me and I can certainly lean on those guys to assist me."

Buttler also admitted it has been difficult for him taking over during such a busy period, with England's white-ball side midway through a run of 12 games in just 25 days. "There's been lots of games in a very short space of time, which has been a challenge as well," he added.

"It would be nice to have a day to reflect a bit and not always be thinking, so it's been busier than I think it would be normally." New white-ball coach Matthew Mott, meanwhile, described the start of Buttler's reign as captain as a "baptism of fire".

"We definitely haven't played our best cricket, there's no shying away from that," Mott said. "But we have an opportunity to turn that around against another very strong opposition. We'll have to take time to reflect on little parts - we've had passages of good play but lost wickets with the bat and a bit of momentum with the ball.

New white-ball coach Matthew Mott admitted it has been a "baptism of fire" for Buttler (Philip Brown/Popperfoto/Popperfoto via Getty Images)

"There's definitely areas we can improve. We don't have long to go into it in too much detail but it has been disappointing.

"I think Jos's leadership has been a baptism of fire. We've only been together a few weeks as captain and coach and it's developing a great rapport.

"He brings a nice calmness and he's shown a great deal of care, such as when leaving players out. He won't be someone who stands up and makes big speeches, he'll do it in his own quiet way."

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