Rohit Sharma ton showed England’s approach is the right one – Jos Buttler
The England captain called on his side to continue to follow the example of his opposite number, who led India to a four-wicket win chasing 305.
Jos Buttler pointed to Rohit Sharma’s belligerent century as proof England are on the right track with their approach despite a fourth successive ODI series defeat.
Rohit had averaged 10.37 in his previous 16 innings across formats but registered a stunning 119 off 90 balls in Cuttack to underpin India’s successful chase of 305 with four wickets and 33 balls to spare.
The India captain cashing in once he got in was a lesson to England, whose top six made scores between 26 and 69 but could not shape the contest as the tourists slipped 2-0 down in the three-match series.
“Credit to Rohit Sharma, I thought he played a fantastic knock, he’s been setting the standard in ODI cricket for a while and it was another great innings here,” Buttler said.
“Any time you’re playing against great players and they play an innings like that, I’m sure players on both sides will be watching and learning.
“He went up and down the gears, absorbed pressure and put a lot of pressure back on. He really showed the modern way of playing 50-over cricket is very dynamic, very aggressive.
“He scored at a rate that just confirms the way we want to play is the right way that you have to play to try to win games of cricket.”
This was an improved England batting display from Thursday’s defeat in Nagpur with Ben Duckett getting the tourists off to a flyer, bludgeoning 10 fours in his 65. Joe Root added a typically busy 69 before the tourists collapsed from 248 for four in the 43rd over to 304 all out with one ball unused.
Rohit then put on 136 in 16.4 overs with Shubman Gill, who made 60, before going on to record his first century for India in 11 months and quieten concerns about his form heading into the Champions Trophy.
“He’s been a great player for such a long period of time and top players generally come up with the goods and he obviously did that,” Buttler added.
“I suppose sometimes it’s probably a nice reminder for you personally that if even Rohit Sharma can come under pressure with what a top player he is, then maybe we should be a bit easy on ourselves.”
Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse were nursing niggles so missed out at the Barabati Stadium, where there was a 40-minute delay during India’s innings due to a malfunction in one of the eight floodlights.
The players briefly left the field but Buttler confirmed there was never any threat of the ODI being abandoned, saying: “If it didn’t come back on, we’d have just played with it and stayed on.”
England appeared a spinner light after selecting Jamie Overton in place of the injured Jacob Bethell, bumping them up to four fast bowlers, but Buttler admitted they were at least 30 runs too light.
“We just needed one or two of us to kick on and play a real innings of note and push our score up to 330-350 kind of territory,” Buttler added.
“But there are some positives there, we’re making steps in the right direction but not the perfect complete performance with the bat.
“The cycle of the team, there’s a few players who are just gaining experience and days like this are great lessons which is what you want – you want to accelerate that learning and keep pushing the guys in the right direction.”
