Jos Buttler will lead England’s white-ball team for the last time against South Africa on Saturday, with his resignation on the eve of their final match of this failed Champions Trophy campaign potentially paving the way for Harry Brook to take on the role.
Two defeats from two not only ended England’s hopes of making the semi-finals but proved terminal for Buttler’s leadership, with two poor World Cup defences in the space of 18 months meaning this campaign was always likely to be the last roll of the dice. Buttler, 34, has no intention of retiring from international cricket, however.
Joined by Brendon McCullum, the head coach who took over the white-ball teams at the start of the year in a bid to breathe new life into his leadership, Buttler said: “It’s the right decision for me and it’s the right decision for the team. Hopefully somebody else can come in and work closely alongside Baz to take the team back to where it needs to be.
“It was quite clear this tournament was going to be important results-wise for my captaincy and two losses – going out of the tournament with a bit of a hangover from the tournaments before – I’ve just reached the end of the road.
“With Brendon coming in only recently, I was really excited to work closely alongside him and hope for a very quick turnaround and take the team forward. It’s not quite worked out that way, so it just feels like it’s the right time for me and the team to have a change.”
As vice-captain, Brook appears the frontrunner to make the step up but McCullum said he and England’s director of men’s cricket, Rob Key, would take “a couple of weeks” to decide. The big question is whether this would overburden a multi-format player, not least with bilateral white-ball series having been used to rest England’s Test cricketers in recent times.
McCullum admitted that, after Buttler initially tasted success when lifting the T20 World Cup in 2022, this logjam contributed to his struggle for results thereafter; an inability to forge a cohesive white-ball setup in an era when global events are now staged annually.
The head coach stressed the schedule is starting to ease, however. After a record 17 Test matches for England in 2024 there are only 11 in the next 12 months, even if five against India at home and an away Ashes tour are major projects. Then comes a T20 World Cup in India in early 2026, with the next 50-over World Cup in southern Africa 18 months later.
“There is an opportunity to be able to play guys across [all] formats,” said McCullum. “There’s a lot to work out, but I’m hopeful that with some shrewd planning and a better understanding of our player pool, we will be able to make sure that we can get [results] across all formats. That is ultimately what the people who follow this team deserve.”
On Buttler’s decision, which McCullum claimed to have briefly considered talking him out of when called to his room the night before, McCullum said: “I think it’s incredibly selfless of Jos and you know, I want us to celebrate what he’s been able to achieve. He’s made the right decision. He’s a World Cup-winning captain and done a good job for England.
“Sometimes the impact you have can be felt after you have left the post. I think Joe Root was a classic example of that with the Test captaincy. He was able to at least hold the fort under trying circumstances, and then the uplift of performance when Ben Stokes took over sort of followed from that. Hopefully it will be the same across the white-ball teams whenever we decide on who that person is going to be.”
Alternatives to Brook, who led for the ODI series against Australia last summer and averaged 78 in that 3-2 series defeat, appear in short supply. One left-field suggestion is to persuade Root to take over the one-day side until the next 50-over World Cup, even if this would likely mean a third captain for the T20 team he has not turned out for since 2019.
On the tournament as a whole, and with his early ledger in the white-ball role reading nine defeats from 10 overall after the disappointing series in India before this tournament, McCullum added: “Ultimately we haven’t been able to score enough runs and with the ball, under pressure we haven’t been good enough. It’s not from a lack of trying, if anything it’s from trying too hard. This one hurts.”
