England's campaign could lead to shortened matches, but Jos Buttler says his players are ready to adapt; "We've got lots of different options"; watch England take on Ireland in the T20 World Cup from 4.30am Wednesday live on Sky Sports Cricket
Tuesday 25 October 2022 23:16, UK
Jos Buttler believes England will be ready to adjust their gameplan if rain interferes in their T20 World Cup clashes against Ireland or Australia at the MCG this week.
The Australian east has been damper and cooler than usual because of the ongoing La Nina weather pattern, with downpours at Hobart on Monday forcing a no-result between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
While the Melbourne weather is notoriously difficult to predict, there are showers forecast on Wednesday and Friday which could impact England's campaign and lead to shortened matches.
Such an occurrence might benefit Ireland, in particular, as fewer overs lead to more of a shootout, but Buttler is unfazed at the prospect and believes his squad is varied enough to cope with any eventuality.
"The big key is to be able to react quickly to those kinds of things," the England captain said. "You have a little idea of things you might do if those kinds of things happen.
"But I don't want to get too sort of preoccupied with what-ifs. I don't want to spend all night staying awake thinking about what might happen, just try and react to it when it does happen.
"What's great about the squad and our team is we've got lots of different options, and even in the same team you can ask people to fulfil different roles.
"That gives us a lot of options when situations change and change quickly - whether that's rain or something, and then we can try and change tack quickly and adapt."
Buttler accepted there is a delicate balancing act in continuing a match in the rain and bringing the players off - even if one side is on the verge of victory as South Africa were against Zimbabwe.
Set a revised total of 64 in seven overs, the Proteas reached 51 for none off three but the rain at the Bellerive Oval grew heavier and Zimbabwe's Richard Ngarava seemed to injure himself after slipping.
Officials attempted to get the game played to a conclusion but the players were brought off and each side claimed a point, with a minimum of five overs each required to constitute a result.
"Whichever side you're on, you're probably going to have a little tendency one way," said Buttler, whose side started the World Cup with a five-wicket win over Afghanistan at Perth on Saturday.
"For instance, if we play and there's a little bit of rain which isn't that heavy and it looks like it's going to blow through, can we just stay on and keep going?
"Where it's reasonable if you can continue the game as much as you can, I think that's the right decision. If it becomes dangerous or unfair then it's certainly the right decision to stop the game."
Buttler was tight-lipped about whether England would rotate one or two of their bowlers with such a tight turnaround between the Ireland and Australia games.
While Chris Woakes and Mark Wood could be rested, with Chris Jordan, David Willey and Tymal Mills waiting in the wings, Buttler was adamant they cannot afford to overlook any opposition and will be fielding what he thinks is their strongest line-up against the Irish.
"In such a short tournament, in must-win games pretty much every time, what's important is to try and put what we think is our best team on the park as many times as we can," Buttler added.
"Anytime you take things for granted or you don't respect the opposition is when you can get hurt.
"I know England playing Ireland obviously from the outside adds extra storylines or can add extra motivation for certain people, but for our team, we respect every opposition.
"We expect a really tough game from everyone we play. We're very much taking one game at a time, and we don't expect Ireland to not bring their best cricket.
"They're going to be fired up for the game. They're going to want to try and beat us, and we want to beat them."
Sam Curran took five wickets in England's opener but isn't resting on his laurels ahead of the Ireland match, warning that England will have to "be at our best" against a dangerous side.
England go into Wednesday's match as favourites but Curran is wary of an Ireland side that qualified ahead of Scotland and the West Indies for the Super 12s.
"They've got some amazing players, we've played a lot of cricket against them, especially in the county system where a lot of their players have played," he said.
"It will be a game where we have to be really switched on because in this format one guy can take it away from us. So we will be on our best, I'm sure. It was good (against Afghanistan), obviously a great start, a really tricky first game, we knew it was going to be tough but an amazing win to start us off. I think tomorrow against Ireland, we know we have to be at our best."
The all-rounder has impressed in recent weeks with his bowling at the death and he said: "Having a consistent run in the side has really given me confidence.
"Jos has given me a role. He has said to me just to try and be adaptable to all situations. There will be days where I bowl in the power play, in the middle and at the end; there will be other days where I bowl in totally different scenarios. It's just trying to keep on my feet and give the team as many options as possible."
Curran added that while England aren't looking too far ahead, he expects Friday's match against hosts Australia at the MCG to be "pretty epic".
Former Ireland cricketer Niall O'Brien believes England are favourites to win the World Cup, but hopes his country can cause an upset on Wednesday.
"Ireland have got some good quick bowlers. They've also got some decent spinners, so Ireland's finger spinners could be useful on a big venue like the MCG," he said.
"As a batting unit you're coming up against Mark Wood, who is bowling absolute rockets, and you can't get away from it. He is bowling as fast as anyone at the moment, It's going to quite daunting. Ireland are more adept and used to facing pace rather than spin. They're probably happier facing Wood than Rashid, turning the ball both ways."
Ireland lost their opening game of the Super 12s, but O'Brien does not think they will make any changes but says Paul Stirling should bowl more.
"I don't think they'll change the 11 throughout the whole tournament. Unless they bring in another batter for a seamer. I would like to see Stirling more with the ball, maybe they could use Doherty to have a go as a batter and use Stirling's off spin. I think he is good enough for two or three overs," he said.
Watch England take on Ireland in the T20 World Cup from 4.30am Wednesday on Sky Sports Cricket.
