Jos Buttler says his own form is the biggest concern after England's Cricket World Cup elimination
Australia beat England by 33 runs putting an end to their World Cup defence campaign; Watch hosts India take on South Africa on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Cricket with coverage from 8am ahead of the first ball at 8.30am.
Sunday 5 November 2023 08:29, UK
England captain Jos Buttler said the Cricket World Cup exit is a low point for him and admits his own performance is the biggest concern.
A 33-run defeat to arch-rivals Australia ended England's abysmal World Cup defence, in which they suffered five consecutive losses and have two games left to play.
Buttler, who led England to victory in the 20-over World Cup in Australia last year where they became double champions, said his own performance throughout the tournament is his biggest concern.
- Scorecard: England vs Australia, Cricket World Cup
- England vs Australia - as it happened in Ahmedabad
- Cricket World Cup table - standings as sides fight for top four
- Cricket World Cup - results/fixtures with every game on Sky
- Stream the Cricket World Cup and more top sport with NOW
"My own form has been the biggest concern coming into the tournament. I felt in a great space and I have not played as well as I can in such a pivotal role, my own performance with the bat has hurt us," Butter said.
"It's certainly a low point. I've had a few but definitely as a captain, to be stood in this position when you arrive in India with very high hopes is incredibly tough.
"We certainly haven't done ourselves justice. Coming into the tournament we fancy ourselves to have a real go at it and push whoever it was going to be all the way. It's incredibly tough, you know, to reach those highs.
"Everyone knows how much hard work goes into that. And even when you come up short, there's so much hard work that goes into that.
"We've let ourselves down. We've let people down at home the people who support us through thick and thin."
Perhaps England's fate was already decided when opener Jonny Bairstow was caught down the leg-side off the first ball in their chase of 287.
Only Dawid Malan (50) and Ben Stokes (64) went on to reach half-centuries, but Australia didn't show an overly dominant performance with the bat either as only Marnus Labuschagne (71) surpassed that milestone.
England will be able to feature in the ICC Champions Trophy if they finish in the top seven of the World Cup table meaning they have win in their final two games against the Netherlands and Pakistan to move up from 10th place.
"The only way you can get back into form or start winning games again is to front up and go again, you have to keep putting in the hard work as individuals and believing that it's not far away," Buttler added.
"The longer it goes on, the closer you are to coming out the other side of it."
England's Moeen Ali also admitted that the side has not been good enough from the start of their campaign when they suffered a shock defeat to New Zealand in the World Cup opener.
"It's very disappointing. We just haven't been good enough from the start and today showed the lack of confidence in the side," said Moeen.
"I thought we were a little bit better tonight, we had the better of the conditions and we know that we should have won this game tonight. These things do happen in cricket.
"It's a bit of a schoolboy error but these things happen when you have no confidence as a side. We can't keep saying we don't have any confidence, we have to do something about it.
"We put in so much work to defend a World Cup that we've been proud to have won in the style we have. That's the most disappointing thing, it's the style of cricket we've played. We haven't really adapted."
England will come up against the Netherlands on November 8 and then face Pakistan on November 11, both games are live on Sky Sports Cricket.
Before then, hosts India come up against in-form South Africa on Sunday. Both teams are already in the quarter-finals. Watch live on Sky Sports Cricket from 8am (first ball at 8.30am).
