Asked how he was feeling, the day before he leads a misfiring side into a game they surely have to win if they are to stand any realistic chance of reaching the World Cup semi-finals, Jos Buttler did not hesitate: “I’m excited. That is always the overriding emotion when you come to these big games. There is always excitement and opportunity ahead.”
Excitement, yes. But probably also some fear, and a certain amount of panic. England take on South Africa needing not just improvement but transformation, and the return of Ben Stokes can only do so much. Buttler at least had no issue identifying what England have to do differently. “Some of the basics,” he said. “The basics in cricket always look after you. Being impeccable with your line and length with the ball, and having that positive outlook with the bat, trying to find ways to get ahead and double down to that attacking style.”
Stokes can certainly help with the batting outlook, but not with the fact that some of the bowlers appear to have completely lost their accuracy. In the first three games Chris Woakes and Sam Curran have conceded 7.50 and 8.07 an over respectively – as of Friday morning, of the 54 bowlers who have bowled at least 13 overs in the tournament they boast the second- and third-worst economy figures. With the bat both have a high score of 14. They seem to have made equally compelling arguments for being dropped.
The rock-solid support Buttler gave Woakes after the Afghanistan game certainly seems to have crumbled in the five days since. “He’s been a fantastic performer for an incredibly long time for England in all the formats, and especially one-day cricket,” Buttler said on Friday. “And we’re all honest guys, right? We’re all honest professionals who hold each other to high standards and individually expect a lot of ourselves and he knows he’s not performing quite how he would like to at the minute.”
He added that “there’s no judgment from our side and we always back all our players,” but while he can back as many players as he likes, he can only pick 11 – and in the circumstances if David Willey does not play on Saturday he might as well not be here at all. But for Curran and Woakes to make way for Willey and Stokes would leave England with only three seamers, and a fresh headache.
It is dangerous to read too much into past games at any ground, as England found to their cost against Afghanistan when their decision at the toss appeared entirely based around what had happened when India played at the same venue a few days previously, none of which actually came to pass.
In some ways Buttler comes into this game with less information – it is the first World Cup game at the Wankhede so there is no recent template for him to copy – but he had played only seven previous games in Delhi, compared with 27 here, and its reputation is established: more fruitful for seam than for spin, and potentially unpleasant for bowlers of all varieties.
England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c/wk), Liam Livingstone, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson, Reece Topley.
South Africa: Temba Bavuma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.
South Africa, who are likely to be unchanged despite their shock defeat to the Netherlands – and despite Heinrich Klaasen suffering a strangely enthusiastic studs-up tackle during a game of football on the outfield on Friday night – have tapped into the experience of Quinton de Kock, who has played three IPL seasons for Mumbai Indians. “Our batting chat today, we basically listened to him,” said Temba Bavuma. “About what the conditions are like, and what to expect. How it can be a batters’ paradise. As batters, there can be a lot of confidence that if it is your day, you can fill your boots.”
There will be minimal margin for error, and great danger for the error-prone. England should stick with four seamers the question is whether the promise Gus Atkinson has shown in his three ODIs outweighs the quality Woakes has displayed in so many of his 117. And then whether Stokes replaces Harry Brook, who showed against Afghanistan his quality with the bat, or Liam Livingstone, who showed against Afghanistan his ability with the ball.
There is, as Buttler said, excitement and opportunity ahead. It is a sign of a not entirely functional side that it is not clear for whom.
