Former England batter Kevin Pietersen believes Jos Buttler batting in the middle order at the 2023 World Cup was a mistake and that he should be opening the batting for England in ODIs.
England had a disastrous World Cup season. He won only 3 out of 9 games, finishing 7th in the points standings. Entering the 2023 World Cup as defending champions, their season went from bad to worse, with their qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy in jeopardy until the very end.
Ahead of the World Cup, England faced criticism for their decision to exclude Harry Brook from the squad, with the team’s management coming under scrutiny during the tournament.
In an exclusive interview with
Wisden.com, Pietersen shared his thoughts on what went wrong for England at the World Cup. In his opinion, England’s poor performance was due to selection problems.
“I think selection was an issue at first,” Petersen said. “It was a bad decision not to choose Harry Brook, so I think there were some problems in the beginning.”
Brook was not included in the reserve squad as senior pro Jason Roy preferred him. However, Roy was left out of the final lineup and Brooke was chosen in his place. At the World Championship, Brook played in his 6 matches, but could not make much of an impact with an average of 28.16 points and over 50 points.
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However, his problems outweighed those of England captain Jos Buttler. Butler scored only 138 runs in nine games, averaging only 15, and never surpassed 50 runs.
Buttler walked around the middle row and hit the No. 4 once, the No. 5 five times and the No. 6 three times, which Petersen believes was a mistake. “Another selection issue was Jos Buttler. He is, in my opinion, one of the best white-ball cricketers in the modern game and a five- or six-man batsman,” Pietersen said. Ta. “I don’t think it was right.
“So there were some problems with the selection, but I don’t think anyone expected what would happen in England. We don’t know what actually happened other than the fact that we saw it.”
Buttler is one of the most fearsome openers in T20 cricket, but he has never opened the bat in an ODI.
England recently started their first international match after the World Cup, a three-match ODI series in the West Indies. Despite him scoring 325 runs in the first match, EnglandWest Indies captain Shai Hope completed an impressive unbeaten run to take the hosts home Therefore, we were unable to record a victory.
In this game as well, Butler had a disappointing result, hitting 3 out of 13 shots as the No. 6 batter. Asked if he was still fit to take England forward in ODIs, Pietersen said he had no doubts about it but would like to see him open up as a batsman.
“Absolutely. And he has to lead the batting. There’s no one better at the top of the rankings in white-ball cricket. There’s no one,” Pietersen said.
Petersen spoke to Wisden.com on the sidelines of Legends League Cricket, where he is currently playing for the Indian Capitals. did. The final match of the tournament will be held in Surat, India. Pietersen, 43, is still going strong and in one of his matches against India, he scored an incredible 77 balls, including 6 off 48 balls.
England will play their second ODI against West Indies tonight (6 December). This is a matchup that requires a win to keep the series alive.
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