Picture Credit: Twitter
India and England are set to take on each other at the T20 World Cup in the second semifinal, scheduled for 10 November 2022 . It will be for the first time that the two teams will meet each other in a T20 World Cup knockout game. Also, it will be his first-ever experience of leading England in a World Cup.
The England captain has been a part of the squad in previous World Cups but he will be leading the team for the first time. In T20 World Cup 2021 and ODI World Cup 2019, Eoin Morgan was the captain of England. While England won the ODI World Cup 2019, they reached the semifinals of the T20 WC 2021.
After Morgan’s retirement, Buttler took over the white-ball captaincy and has been doing a fair job. England have once again made it to the semifinals and will be up against a strong Indian side. Although Buttler has done well enough leading England in the bilateral series and the league stage of the T20 WC 2022, leading the team in a knockout game requires a different level of composure.
Eoin Morgan was a man who handled the pressure with ease and made the right decisions, it will be interesting to see how Buttler responds to the challenges. While he will have the likes of Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes to aid him on the field, it will be him taking the final call.
When Buttler was asked if he had any sort of talk with Eoin Morgan on how to handle captaincy in such big games by SportsTiger correspondent Vedant Sharma in the pre-match press conference, the England captain said that he has nice relations with the former England skipper but it’s him who is the captain and not Morgan.
“I speak to Eoin quite a lot, he is one of my best mates. I know if I have any sort of questions, I can speak to him. But it’s very much about doing it my way. So, as Eoin is not the captain of England anymore, I have to take that on myself, be myself and lead the team my way,” said Buttler.